Glen, ( This will be a tangential trip into nebulosity, but what the hey!? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif )
[[[Larry, you also argue that each person's subjective feelings are an objective fact to him or her. Tricky.]]]
Help me stay with you here, ...how 'bout a quote of where it is that I make that argument.
But while I'm waiting to get-clear exactly what you think I meant, I'll try to make more-clear exactly what I think I meant.
I know ( KNOW!, insofar as "knowledge" is possible) that I am pleased/displeased by my perceptions of beauty/ugliness, sweet/sour, finished/crude, etc. And I know that practicality/utility clothed in "ugly" esthetics never satisfy me, because I always believe it is possible to clothe them "beautifully"( That's one of the things "design" is about!).
To pretend that this is not "a fact" of my nature/personality, and to argue-myself into a very expensive purchase/long-term commitment based SOLELY on measurable or 'objective" criteria, would be to set myself up for gnawing dissatisfaction.
To ignore that there IS such a thing as "your grain" that can be gone-against only with consequences, is, in my opinion to deny the complexity of human "being".
And to attempt to reduce that-which-cannot-be-measured (or agreed-upon by consensus) to "inconsequential" status, for the sake of easier decision making, is, in the matter of personal likes and dislikes, plainly and simply, "self"-denial. I think self-knowledge is generally to-be-preferred.
I certainly do NOT present anything sprinkled with words such as "I", "my", or "self", as a statement representing "objective" fact. Precisely the opposite, ..."subjective" fact. (never mind that the physicists tell us that all "objectivity" is at base, "subjective".)
Subjective facts, of course, being the ones that make-up our personal "worlds", ...the facts we react-to, ...the worlds we really "live" in, (as in "I think I'm Napoleon leading my troops to victory, ...and it's exhilerating and glorious!". You think I'm sitting drooling in the looney-bin, ...and that it's pathetic and disgusting. Only one of us is having a good time. Who is the most fortunate(ever see "Equis")?
What I DO argue(and what I THINK you argue,) is that both objective (measurable) "fact" AND subjective(measurable only by the "self") "fact"(or some other word-of-your-choosing) should be acknowledged as important elements when making a decision with "satisfaction" (a subjective experience!) as part of the goal. It seems to me that we have just chosen a different emphasis for our respective posts.
If someone finds the greatest satisfaction, not from appreciation of design esthetics( for example), but from having all their "objective" ducks in-a-row, ...from having all the "most practical" options gathered, then their subjective decision to "go-objective" may in-fact reap THEM the greatest harvest.
And if they were aware that this was what they were doing, I'd consider all well. "Different strokes"! The world has room for both bean-counters AND artists.
Incidentally I think the terms "objective" and "to him or her" are mutually-exclusive. When anything is qualified by "TO HIM(HER)" , objectivity is excluded (and subjectivity implied) BY the qualification.
Certainly I would not intentionally argue that "subjective feelings" were such impossible things.
I'm never quite sure whether everyone is having fun at these "dances-on-slippery-slopes", so I'll speak for myself,...I enjoy it.
Much more stimulating/thought-provoking than couch-potato tv!
Objective? Subjective? "tricky", ...I agree! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
Larry