Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 19:02:00 +0100
Subject: Re: PKF: When Harry Met Sandra


Chris Holt wrote:
> Jeff Dalton wrote:
> > John Fox wrote:
> > 
> > > It seems to me that Harding's comments on the cultural embeddedness
> > > of claims, that there can be objective claims but not value-neutral ones,
> > > and that a wider picture can generally be drawn if one approaches
> > > things as well from other value-perspectives, are all simply correct.
> > 
> > I don't think I understand what people have in mind when saying
> > facts can be objective but not value-neutral.  [...]
> 
> I don't know what they have in mind, but one possibility has to
> do with the selection process.  [...]  That choice of what to present,
> and perhaps what to link together, is probably not value-neutral 
> (though it might well be unwitting).

I suppose it might be said that a claim is expressed in some way
(certain words, symbols, noises, or whatever are chosen); and 
maybe that's not value-neutral.  But then why would the way it's
expressed be objective?  So it seems to me that the same problem
occurs whether we consider claims or the way the claims are
expressed.

Consider claims.  Maybe I can express my problem this way: Suppose
some claim is true no matter what value-perspective it's seen from.
Then why say it's not value-neutral?  Or if the truth value varies
depending on the value-perspective, why say it's objective?

Moreover, it seems to me that there are a number of claims that
one might make in ordinary life that are straightforwardly true
(or straightforwardly false).  For example:

  There is only one tree in my garden.

  I took a bus into town today.

  I am 100 feet tall.

It's true that I took a bus into town today (for example), and
I don't see how a different value-perspective could make it false,
even though the claim uses words such as "bus", "town", "today",
and maybe even "I" that, it might be argued, have some culture-
derived or value-perspective-derived "load".  And maybe "took"
isn't value-neutral.  But so what?  It's clear that the vehicle
that I got into, how it made its way down the road, and where
I got off, count as an insteance of me taking a bus into town.
I don't see how it can be false, given what actually occurred,
no matter what value-perspective one picks.

-- jeff
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