Understanding "subjective" and "objective" statements
A common source of confusion that we often encounter is regarding the terms "subjective" and "objective" statements. The term "subjective" is often defined to mean as expressing an opinion or sentiment, while the term "objective" is defined to mean statements that are factual or unbiased. But there is a problem with such definitions. How do we know that what we are stating is indeed factual? We may believe it to be a fact, while it may not actually be factual. Similarly, how do we know that what we are saying about something is unbiased? We may not even know what are all the possible sources of bias, and we may not have the complete picture about something even if we believe otherwise. Yet another (really weird) definition of these terms is that, a "subjective" question (in an exam, for example) is something that requires an essay-type answer, while an "objective" question is something like a multiple-choice question, or a...