The Limitations of Research Findings behind the Veil of Subjectivities: Subjective Values and Extra-Subjective Challenges

Abstract

This essay addresses the challenges of Subjectivity in research. Firstly, it illustrates that most researchers fail to transcend subjectivities and are trapped into particular values that they favor to the utmost. Others avert findings that they dislike by systematically sticking to what they desire. Secondly, it addresses the extra impact of imposed externalities (standards, methods and methodologies) as what compels the researchers to follow specific paths as an insurmountable fixation at the expense of people in quandaries. The researcher discusses this impact as a threat to academic freedom and an existential concern, in which the right methods are often used to solve the wrong problems and vice versa. The essay focuses on a few considerable cases from the African relation to the Euro-American systems,w hich often deflect intellectuals from conducting a soul-searching endeavor. Furthermore, the essay discusses how such factors limit the findings of the research via limited tutelage and unethically prioritized subjective quests for instrumental gains. The essay’s method is philosophical. It employs hermeneutic analysis of key concepts of subjectivity in research. The essay proposes alternative rethinking to devalue subjective values and extra-subjective challenges.