The notion of ”objective reality” refers to anything that exists as it is independent of any
conscious awareness, perception. ”Subjective reality” is related to anything depending upon some conscious awareness. Objectivity is associated with concepts such as reality, truth and reliability. Ranking of the tallest buildings in the world are easy, since it is based on verifiable facts, and we have a result what everybody will accept. (Well, we learn how to believe or not believe to secondary or ternary information sources. I have not measured the heights of the towers myself, but I am ready to accept that the actual source of information found on the web (44) is reliable:
1. Burj Khalifa, United Arab Emirates – 2,717 Feet
2. Shanghai Tower, China – 2,073 Feet
3. Makkah Royal Clock Tower, Saudi Arabia – 1,972 Feet
4. Ping An International Finance Centre, China – 1,965 Feet
5. Lotte World Tower, South Korea – 1,819 Feet
6. One World Trade Center, United States – 1,776 feet
Actually all the other web-pages show the same result.
The rank of most influential people of all time shown by the Ranker site shows:
1. Jesus Christ
2. Albert Einstein
3. Isaac Newton
4. Leonardo da Vinci
5. Aristotle
6. Muhammad
This list is far from being objective. What about Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Darwin etc. ? The ranked list of tall buildings is objective, and it approaches well what we accept as ”truth”. We feel that trying to create an objective ranking has a higher value, than a subjective one. A person who argues based on a subjective viewpoint sees things only from their own perspective, loaded with all biases. Of course, subjective is not identical to random. When you read the list of the six most influential people you were not surprised by seeing any of the names, even if you missed somebody else. Seeing on this list the name of Péter Érdi you might think, that the list is random, extremely subjective or most likely manipulated.
Philosophers gave up the attractive concept of absolute objectivity, still mathematicians
study the problem of the science of objective ranking45. Nobody is perfect, there is no individual can be fully unbiased.
From RANKING to REPAIR! 