Objectivity

Objectivity is the virtue and the epistemological standard of adhering to reality by a volitional method: forming conclusions from evidence by the rules of logic, and holding them accountable to facts rather than to feelings or to other people's opinions. It is the concept from which Objectivism takes its name.

Objectivity is neither given nor automatic. It is something a person achieves by choosing to focus and by following a method, which is why it is a virtue and not merely a description of how minds work.

The false alternative it rejects

The traditional debate offers two positions, and Objectivism rejects both as sharing a premise:

Intrinsicism holds that facts, values or concepts exist in things independently of any mind, and are grasped directly by revelation or intuition, with no method required. On this view a consciousness that had to do something in order to know would not really be knowing.
Subjectivism holds that because knowing requires a consciousness doing something, the result is a product of that consciousness rather than of reality: truth is what one feels, or what the group agrees, or what serves an interest.

Both assume that a process performed by a mind must distort what it grasps, so knowledge is either passive or worthless. Objectivism denies the assumption. Consciousness has an identity, and having a specific means of awareness is the condition of awareness rather than a barrier to it. Processing by a valid method is how reality is grasped, not an obstacle between the knower and the known.

“Objectivity is both a metaphysical and an epistemological concept. It pertains to the relationship of consciousness to existence.”
~ Ayn Rand, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology

Objective, intrinsic and subjective

Rand applied the same three-way distinction beyond epistemology. Applied to values:

Intrinsic: the good is in the object itself, regardless of anyone's life or context.
Subjective: the good is whatever anyone happens to want.
Objective: the good is a relation between a thing and the person it benefits, determined by the facts of his nature and his situation, and identified by reason.

The same structure underlies the treatment of concepts. Concepts are neither labels floating free of reality nor Platonic entities existing apart from particulars; they are products of a specific mental process performed on real existents. See Concept formation and Measurement omission.

In practice

Objectivity as a virtue involves:

Keeping the full context of one's knowledge rather than treating a conclusion in isolation.
Reducing abstract claims back to the perceptual evidence they rest on, rather than manipulating them as floating terms. The failure mode is the floating abstraction.
Distinguishing the arbitrary from the true and the false. A claim advanced with no evidence is not a candidate for belief at all.
Treating emotions as consequences of one's values and conclusions, and therefore as data about oneself rather than as evidence about the world.

Common misunderstandings

That objectivity means having no point of view. It means having one arrived at by a valid method. The "view from nowhere" is the intrinsicist demand Objectivism rejects.
That it means agreeing with the consensus. Consensus is a fact about people, not about the subject. Substituting it for evidence is a form of subjectivism.
That certainty is impossible because knowledge is contextual. Contextual certainty is still certainty. A conclusion proved within the available evidence is knowledge, and later evidence can extend it without retroactively making it arbitrary. See Certainty and Context.

Discussion

References

Rand, Ayn. Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. The Objectivist, 1967.
Peikoff, Leonard. Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, chapter 4.

External links

Objectivity at the Ayn Rand Lexicon

Epistemology Topics
Senses \| Consciousness \| Volition \| Concepts: Unit, Concept-Formation
Objectivity \| Knowledge: Context, Hierarchy \| Reason: Certainty, Truth, the Arbitrary \| Emotions