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"A sad girl" by Carlos Saenz de Tejada (1921)
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What do you make of that? How is it "enlightening" to know that it is difficult to be objective? If objectivity is so difficult to attain, what's left other than bias and enthusiasm? Do Mlodinow's claims here and elsewhere in this text encourage readers to feel cynical or humble? Don't both postures--cynicism and humility--undercut the very qualities--confidence and enthusiasm--that are likely to help someone advance their beliefs?
Understanding that being objective is difficult simply means you are human. We generally want to believe that a person we know or care about, that is our friends and family, are above making the mistakes and causing the disappointments of “everyone else”. By being objective we understand that this is not the case. Just because they are close to us does not make them any less susceptible to the follies associated with everyday life. Some people may defend a man on trial for murder even though the evidence is heavily implicating him simply because he is their brother or father. If we think about it objectively we realize that this doesn’t make them inhuman and that everyone makes mistakes. Understanding this makes us realize that our own personal beliefs and ideas based on relationships in fact occasionally hold us back from seeing things as they really are simply because we don’t want to believe it. Holmes once told Watson he would never marry because he would lose his ability to be objective towards the woman in question. While im not saying we should take it this far, I believe that understanding our own shortcomings is the first step we must take in the direction of overcoming them.
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