The Subject of Objectivity, Subjectively Considered

[摘要] Lawyers attack the objectivity of data, or perceived lack of it, to impeach expert witnesses whose findings lack psychometric verification and quantitation. A valid theory of knowledge, according to this tactic, would exclude what an evaluee tells us (as self-serving) and how we interpret it (as biased). In my world, the client is paying for experience, the value-added component of the assessment beyond mechanical algorithms. I’m worried that subjectivity has been canceled. Perhaps expert witnesses and attorneys mean different things by objectivity. We usually mean that our data, however derived, have not been influenced by our personal sentiments, that they are impartial. For expert witnesses, the ability to confront explicit and implicit bias must be incorporated into practice and embedded into our attitudes, predispositions, and behavior.

[学科分类] 儿科学

[关键词] objectivity;expert testimony;ethics;psychometrics;epistemology