Benjamin Cain
1 min readApr 12, 2021

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I don't see that you've grasped my point about the difference between the subjectivity of holding a viewpoint, and the subjectivity (or objectivity) of that viewpoint's content. Just because a subject/self is holding a flashlight doesn't mean that the flashlight can illuminate only that subject/self.

So I'm not clear on what your objectivity challenge is supposed to be. You want me to show you objectivity that doesn't come from a subject or a mind. That would indeed be paradoxical. But there's a big difference between a mind that's only expressing its interior contents and a mind that lets its interior take a back seat to make room for the exterior patterns to reveal themselves.

Indeed, I noticed the role of objectivity in a Buddhist text I researched in writing a recent article on mysticism. The text is called "By Way of the Five Aggregates," and it says that the monk should be "disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with volitional formations, disenchanted with consciousness.” As a result, the monk “becomes dispassionate.

Through dispassion [his mind] is liberated.”

The end result of the attack on egoism isn't just inner peace but objectivity, as in dispassionate, detachment, and impartiality. I'm not sure, then, why you're so critical of objectivity.

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Benjamin Cain
Benjamin Cain

Written by Benjamin Cain

Ph.D. in philosophy / Knowledge condemns. Art redeems. / https://benjamincain.substack.com / https://ko-fi.com/benjamincain / benjamincain8@gmailDOTcom

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