“The polarity between the ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ points of view is a creation of the left hemisphere’s (disembodied) analytic disposition. In reality there can be neither absolutely, only a choice between a betweenness that acknowledges itself, and one which denies its own nature. By -identifying- blueness solely with the behaviour of electromagnetic particles one is not avoiding value, not avoiding betweenness, not avoiding one’s shadow being cast across the picture. One is using the inwardness of consciousness in a very specialized way to strive to empty itself as much as possible of value, of the self. The paradoxical result is an extremely partial, fragmented version of the colour blue, which is neither value-free nor independent of the self’s disposition towards its object.”

— Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary, pp.222

Effectively, there is no objectivity. This makes sense for a simple reason, it is impossible to establish a disembodied, and thus disinterested observer. Even in a machine that ‘simply reads data’ we find, present in the -structure of the hardware and software-, subjectively sourced, metaphors, models, frameworks and methods all of whose peculiar character, purpose and connectivity must inform the not only the results of gathering data, but the process, the data, the sources of the data, the context, and the researchers. You can’t really take the water away from the water while it is in the water. In other words, the methods of abstraction for analysis exhibit subjective origins, structure, features and activity. And this is only a technical problem, compared to the inescapable problem that the eye, once removed from the self to ‘acquire a more objective view’… no longer sees. And the specific ways in which it no longer sees, are, approximately, our ‘methods of abstraction’ cunningly employed in a curious game of self-deception that results not in objectivity, but delusional modes of pseudo-certainty. This result is a primary toxin acting upon human intelligence… relational and otherwise.