Assessments provide educators with both objective and
subjective data in order to ascertain student progress and skill mastery.
I present a scoring method for eliciting truthful
subjective data in situations where objective truth is unknowable.
Not exact matches
In this light, purchasing something and then asking for a refund because it didn't meet
subjective standards sure seems like an outdated method of buying and selling, given the encroachment of real
data.
The doctrine of the philosophy of organism is that, however far the sphere of efficient causation be pushed
in the determination of components of a concrescence — its
data, its emotions, its appreciations, its purposes, its phases of
subjective aim — beyond the determination of these components there always remains the final reaction of the self - creative unity of the universe.
I've noticed one thing over and over again
in these arguments and that is how
subjective data is managed.
The examples given above entail that the subject prehend the past experience
in terms of its content or objective
data as well as its emotion or
subjective form.
To a large extent the new
subjective form is a reenactment of
subjective forms
in the objective
datum, so that there is a flow of feeling from the objective side to the
subjective side of each entity.
Some might question whether such
subjective criteria as «beauty» and «harmony» belong
in science, where theories can be evaluated objectively by whether they fit the
data.
Translated into Whitehead's terminology, this statement becomes: «the inherent meaning of the initial
datum is appropriated by the becoming occasion
in accordance with its
subjective aim.»
But to the extent that such
data are experienced or prehended by later occasions, they are already immanent
in them, and they are so even before there is any conformal reproduction of
subjective forms.
Therefore, the past relational
data which are felt vectorially and conformably exist
in contexts which are always «more» than the energies which we are able to include
in our own present
subjective immediacy.
On the
datum theory (Q), the concrescence had its underlying unity
in terms of its initiating
datum, and the subject was the
subjective aspect of this objective
datum (early sense).
Each experience
in this series is a
subjective process of feeling many
data and synthesizing them into a complex experiential whole.
Initially,
in the Gifford's Draft, the name we shall give to Whitehead's writings, largely from part II, which conceive the subject as the
subjective aspect of the
datum from which concrescence begins, 5 a few anticipations of
subjective aim can be discerned.
There is secondary origination of conceptual feelings with
data which are partially identical with, and partially diverse from, the eternal objects forming the
data in the primary phase of the mental pole; the determination of identity and diversity depending on the
subjective aim at attaining depth of intensity by reason of contrast.
The principle is that
in regard to the presentation of
subjective aims, God has to «speak» to each actual occasion
in its own «language,» that is, at its own level,
in a manner harmonious with the character of the sort of
data which are
in general operative
in the aesthetic synthesis which is the concrescence of the actual occasion
in question.
Such a miracle would involve the suspension of the laws of nature at the level of primitive actual occasions, but if we accept the principle that God «speaks» to a given actual occasion
in its own «language,» and if the «language» of primitive actual occasions
in nature is such that the character of the
data available for aesthetic synthesis
in the concrescence of such occasions admits only of absolutely miniscule contrasts with the givenness of the character of the past, then God has no leverage via
subjective aims to introduce shifts
in the social structures conditioning the possibilities available for aesthetic synthesis
in the concrescences of such primitive actual occasions.
The philosophy of organism seeks to describe how objective
data pass into
subjective satisfaction, and how order
in the objective
data provides intensity
in the
subjective satisfaction.
The method is realistic, not idealistic: Whitehead remarks that instead of describing,
in Kantian fashion, how
subjective data pass into the appearance of an objective world, he describes how
subjective experience emerges from an objective world.
This puts Hartshorne where he wants to be, because to intuit (prehend) actual occasions as they occur is to intuit (prehend) them formaliter, as they exist
in the immediate subjectivity of concrescence, and since God is everlasting, and experiences all actual occasions formaliter, actual occasions are preserved everlastingly (
in their full, warm,
subjective immediacy)
in the consequent nature of God.6 This interpretation resolves the question of the status of the past, the problem of how the past is given as
datum for concrescing actual occasions, and the question of a ground for truth claims about the past.
In this regard, a proposition is indeed «theoretical,» but in the deeper understanding as a lure endeavoring to fix the subjective form which clothes the feeling of the proposition as a datu
In this regard, a proposition is indeed «theoretical,» but
in the deeper understanding as a lure endeavoring to fix the subjective form which clothes the feeling of the proposition as a datu
in the deeper understanding as a lure endeavoring to fix the
subjective form which clothes the feeling of the proposition as a
datum.
In affirming this intimate experiential source for the knowledge of man the
data of objective research are not rejected, nor are the gates opened to uncontrolled
subjective vagaries.
The
subjective form of a feeling is the manner
in which the subject feels its
datum (see PR 23 / 35).
Whitehead claims that a feeling can be analyzed into five factors:» (i) the «subject» which feels; (ii) the «initial
data» which are to be felt; (iii) the «elimination»
in virtue of negative prehensions; (iv) the «objective
datum» which is felt; (v) the «
subjective form,» which is how that subject feels that objective
datum» (PR 221 / 337f.
But
in more sophisticated actual entities,
in entities higher up the scale of organic being which inherit positively a richer and more variegated set of
data from the past, the responsive, supplemental phase is a process of sorting out the
data, modifying and reorganizing it to arrive at a complex unity of
subjective feeling.
But although negative prehensions eliminate their
data from inclusion
in the internal constitution of the new actual entity, they contribute their
subjective forms to the total «emotional complex» of the final satisfaction (PR 41f.
Originality (and hence life) occurs»... when the
subjective aim which determines its process of concrescence has introduced a novelty of definiteness not to be found
in the inherited
data of its primary phase.»
In their moment of occurrence they are
subjective and as they complete themselves they become objective
data for other events.
Every occasion of experience arises
in an initial phase
in which there are initial
data and the initial phase of the
subjective aim.
In this more fundamental mode, other actual entities are perceived, and the
data are received not neutrally, but with emotional and purposive
subjective forms of reception.
This doctrine represents the rejection of the sensationalist principle, according to which the primary activity
in perception would be a bare reception of a
datum, devoid of any
subjective form of reception.
A proposition emerges
in the analysis of a judgment; it is the
datum of the judgment
in abstraction from the judging subject and from the
subjective form.
It is defined as the doctrine that «the primary activity
in the act of experience is the bare
subjective entertainment of the
datum, devoid of any
subjective form of reception» (PR 239).
In regard to his doctrine of ingression, Whitehead distinguished three different ways in which an eternal object can function in the concrescence of an actual entity:» (i) it can be an element in the definiteness of some objectified nexus, or of some single actual entity, which is the datum of a feeling; (ii) it can be an element in the definiteness of the subjective form of some feeling; or (iii) it can be an element in the datum of a conceptual, or propositional, feeling» (PR 290 / 445
In regard to his doctrine of ingression, Whitehead distinguished three different ways
in which an eternal object can function in the concrescence of an actual entity:» (i) it can be an element in the definiteness of some objectified nexus, or of some single actual entity, which is the datum of a feeling; (ii) it can be an element in the definiteness of the subjective form of some feeling; or (iii) it can be an element in the datum of a conceptual, or propositional, feeling» (PR 290 / 445
in which an eternal object can function
in the concrescence of an actual entity:» (i) it can be an element in the definiteness of some objectified nexus, or of some single actual entity, which is the datum of a feeling; (ii) it can be an element in the definiteness of the subjective form of some feeling; or (iii) it can be an element in the datum of a conceptual, or propositional, feeling» (PR 290 / 445
in the concrescence of an actual entity:» (i) it can be an element
in the definiteness of some objectified nexus, or of some single actual entity, which is the datum of a feeling; (ii) it can be an element in the definiteness of the subjective form of some feeling; or (iii) it can be an element in the datum of a conceptual, or propositional, feeling» (PR 290 / 445
in the definiteness of some objectified nexus, or of some single actual entity, which is the
datum of a feeling; (ii) it can be an element
in the definiteness of the subjective form of some feeling; or (iii) it can be an element in the datum of a conceptual, or propositional, feeling» (PR 290 / 445
in the definiteness of the
subjective form of some feeling; or (iii) it can be an element
in the datum of a conceptual, or propositional, feeling» (PR 290 / 445
in the
datum of a conceptual, or propositional, feeling» (PR 290 / 445).
There is serious divine interference on the views that God provides either
subjective aim
in initial
data or the prefigured possibilities, but God on my view does neither.
Whitehead acknowledged what I call essential
data in only one case, that of the basic lure for the
subjective aim derived by a hybrid physical prehension of God.
In short, because the nonrepeatability of qualities (as subjective forms) does not imply the non-recurrence of a datum (with its qualities) in many different occasions, the nonrepeatability of qualities does not imply the inevitable degeneration of the divine memory of individual
In short, because the nonrepeatability of qualities (as
subjective forms) does not imply the non-recurrence of a
datum (with its qualities)
in many different occasions, the nonrepeatability of qualities does not imply the inevitable degeneration of the divine memory of individual
in many different occasions, the nonrepeatability of qualities does not imply the inevitable degeneration of the divine memory of individuals.
For a
subjective form is irreducibly relational and historical; it is the form for this
datum in this occasion.
To be sure, each of these
subjective features is more prominent
in religion; there is a greater diversity of models, greater influence of interpretation on
data, greater tenacity
in commitment to paradigms, and greater ambiguity
in paradigm choice.
But at least two senses of the word can easily be isolated: sometimes, «information» means simply «
data,» objective facts given «out there,» things, processes, brute events; at other times, however, it means the cognitive contents of
subjective knowledge «
in here» about things, processes, events, and so on.
The further question, of whether this kind of «memory» which preserves the reality of such valued
data in the divine life, also carries with it what we might describe as
subjective immortality, is not discussed
in Whitehead's essay.
One subject draws
in a myriad of
data in its instantaneous flicker of subjectivity, and
in that instant, each morsel of
data is assigned its own
subjective form.
After its world, its subjectivity, this room for development, has been exhausted, after the achievement of its
subjective aim, which is its supreme concretion and unity, it is now to be regarded as occurring
in various other processes of concrescence as objectified, as a
datum.
This colors Whitehead's final description of genetic growth
in concrescence: «At length a complex unity of objective
datum is obtained,
in the guise of a contrast of actual entities, eternal objects, and propositions, felt with corresponding complex unity of
subjective form» (PR 283 / 433M).
The choice to use contraceptives or to support legislation limiting industrial emissions may be based
in part on scientific
data, but the choice itself is
subjective.
Compatibility for integration, if placed
in the initial phase, entails integration sooner or later, for the way the
data are compatible dictates the outcome, it is
in no wise dependent upon free
subjective decision of the occasion.
By basing
subjective unity upon the virtual unity of objective
data Whitehead has imposed on his philosophy this additional requirement that there be no elimination
in later phases.
By transition,
in this earlier theory, the
datum from whence the
subjective process of appropriation begins (cf. PR 150/2270 is formed.
As soon as determinateness is achieved, another new process of integration starts with respect to the available
data which have arrived
in the meantime, because although at that moment all the
data which were available have been synthesized,
in God's case,
in contrast to a normal actual entity, the
subjective aim has not thereby been fully actualized.
Indeed,
in early Gnostic communities the
data did mean almost anything, since the Gnostics were not adherents of the visible Church and were therefore free to interpret New Testament texts
in a wholeheartedly
subjective way.