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5. Review the documentation of assumptions and doubts expressed during the verification
and authentication processes for evidence of unconscious and emotional
bias patterns.
What is Objectivity?
THE PRINCIPLE OF OBJECTIVITY
Objectivity pertains to how our judgment correlates to the external world, as it actually
exists, regardless of our desires. Written in the context of intelligence doctrine, Objectivity
requires us to evaluate all judgments for the deliberate distortions and manipulations
due to self-interest.
To understand Objectivity, we must define “external world.” The external world is
existence apart from one’s self. Unfortunately, Existence, a metaphysical axiom, completely
resists objective definition. With the exception of concepts referring to sensations
and metaphysical axioms, every concept can be objectively defined and communicated in
terms of other concepts. 93 The exceptions, sensations and metaphysical axioms, require
ostensive definitions:
To define the meaning of the color “blue,” for instance, one must point to some blue
objects to signify, in effect: “I mean this.” . . . To define “existence,” one would have to
sweep one’s arms around and say: I mean this.” 94
The Principle of Objectivity requires us to be the honest broker and messenger of that
which exists and may occur.
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
Pitfalls that Limit Objectivity
62
—Mark Twain
Both Accuracy and Objectivity are influenced and shaped by biases. Many people use
the term Objectivity to mean freedom from bias. 95 This is incorrect; no judgments can
ever be truly unbiased. Biases are inescapable, but their influence may be recognized and
managed. 96 I will establish a clear line between the two principles by declaring that biases
which limit accuracy are unconscious and the biases which limit objectivity are conscious
and deliberate. Unconscious biases lead to misperceived data — a limiting factor of
Accuracy, while conscious biases lead to the deliberate manipulation of data to support a
pre-determined outcome — the limiting factor of Objectivity.
93 Ayn Rand, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (New York: Mentor, 1979), 52-53.
94 Rand, 53.
95 Barzun and Graff, 174.
96 Jack Davis, “Combating Mindset,” Studies in Intelligence, 35, no. 4 (Winter 1991): 13-18.