Science and Art 185 



most obvious things that led to this disturbing thought is 

 the fact that different observers don't always agree even 

 about the relative size of two different things. When we come 

 to things like color and pitch, disagreement is even more 

 common and more difficult to resolve. A color-blind person 

 simply doesn't experience what the normal person sees as 

 red. These discrepancies and many more like them gave rise 

 over two thousand years ago to a long argument about the 

 nature of knowledge and indeed about the very existence 

 of the external world. We would be very foolish to go into 

 this argument now, but some of you may want to read 

 about it later on in courses in philosophy. 



What concerns us here is that these discussions lead to 

 a distinction between different ways of knowing which is 

 quite useful in general discussions but should not be pushed 

 very far toward its Hmits. This is the distinction between 

 objective and subjective knowledge. To take a very simple 

 case, if I tell you that the automobile standing by the curb 

 is approximately 208 inches long, you either agree out of 

 hand or, if you are a skeptic, you go out and measure it and 

 get a figure which is satisfyingly close to mine. We agree 

 to call the length of the car an objective fact. If, however, 

 I say it is the most beautiful car on the road, you are not 

 nearly so likely to agree, and if we are very good friends 

 and are reasonably sophisticated in modern philosophy and 

 psychology, I will admit that my view of the car is based 

 on a subjective judgment and that this judgment is influ- 

 enced by the fact that I own the car. 



We are now in a position to reconsider our earlier state- 

 ment that we have not yet developed suitable instruments 

 for measuring values. The difficulty is more than technical. 

 It is inherent in the fact that certain kinds of values are 

 intrinsically more subjective in character than the properties 

 we are accustomed to measure in the world of science. This 



