subjectivityn.
/ˌsʌbdʒɛkˈtɪvᵻti/, /ˌsʌbdʒᵻkˈtɪvᵻti/, U.S. /ˌsəbˌdʒɛkˈtɪvədi/ 1. The quality or condition of being based on subjective consciousness, experience, etc.; the fact of existing in the mind only.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [noun] > something unreal > nature of
notionality1653
ideality1793
subjectivity1803
abstractedness1878
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > subjectivity, relation to self > [noun] > condition
subjectivity1854
1803 Edinb. Rev. Jan. 265 In the mere belief of the subjectivity of perception, it [sc. transcendentalism] certainly is not original.
1854 A. G. Henderson tr. V. Cousin Philos. Kant viii. 177 The subjectivity of human reason; this it is that troubles Kant.
1877 E. Caird Crit. Acct. Philos. Kant ii. iv. 262 The mere subjectivity of sensation.
1884 F. Temple Relations Relig. & Sci. (1885) v. 132 The pure subjectivity of Religion..is no more proved by this argument than the pure subjectivity of Science.
1888 Mind Oct. 596 Belief in the subjectivity of time, space and other forms of thought inevitably involves Agnosticism; belief in their objectivity in no way implies the rejection of Idealism.
1922 B. W. van Riper in E. C. Wilm Stud. in Philos. & Theol. viii. 238 The moral law within..was absolute,..and thus he [sc. Kant] was enabled to reach again to an outer world from which he had seemed to be barred by the subjectivity of the categories.
1963 E. Bone tr. Lukács's Ideol. of Modernism in D. Walder Lit. in Mod. World (1990) 163 The rejection of narrative objectivity, the surrender to subjectivity, may take the form of Joyce's stream of consciousness,..or of Gide's ‘action gratuite’.
1998 F. Cioffi Freud & Question of Pseudoscience i. 18 By 1917 the inevitable results of the subjectivity of the method had made themselves felt in the defections of Jung and Adler.
2.
a. Consciousness of one's states or actions.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > subjectivity, relation to self > [noun] > consciousness of self
sense of selfa1670
subjectivity1821
1821 S. T. Coleridge in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 10 249 In the object, we infer our own existence and subjectivity.
1874 A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. vii. 287 The idea of life, and therefore of subjectivity, is put out of sight.
1885 J. Martineau Types Ethical Theory I. i. xi. §8. 211 They forbid us to appropriate to our own subjectivity the intelligent acts of which we are conscious.
1974 J. Flood Brian Moore ii. 48 Coffey moves outside his own subjectivity when he sees that to the spectators at his trial, he is merely a comic object.
1998 E. Pols Mind Regained Introd. 13 Actions like..conversing with a friend, sawing a piece of wood..are guided by an inwardness that is both active and receptive... We call that inwardness consciousness, subjectivity, or awareness; but those names..overemphasize the receptivity of inwardness.
b. A conscious being.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > subjectivity, relation to self > [noun]
subjectiveness1826
subjectivitya1834
autocentrism1884
the mind > mental capacity > consciousness > subjectivity, relation to self > [noun] > system of subjective being > conscious being
subjectivitya1834
subject-objectivity1834
a1834 S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains (1838) III. 1 The Identity. The absolute subjectivity, whose only attribute is the Good.
1840 W. H. Mill Observ. Applic. Pantheistic Princ. i. 103 Individuals stand as ‘the subjectivities that realize the substantial’ of the Idea.
1902 V. E. Southworth Vital Touch Author's Note 7 The infinite objectivity which we call the universe is the eternal playmate and bosom friend of the infinite subjectivity which we call the soul.
1991 P. Kamuf Derrida Reader Introd. p. xxxv Hegel reproaches Kant for his stubborn refusal to admit any knowledge of the infinite God by a finite subjectivity.
3.
a. The quality in literature or art which depends on the expression of the personality or individuality of the artist; the individuality of an artist as expressed in his work.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > the arts in general > [noun] > work of art > qualities generally
decoruma1568
humoura1568
variety1597
strength1608
uniformity1625
barbarity1644
freedom1645
boldness1677
correctness1684
clinquant1711
unity1712
contrast1713
meretriciousness1727
airiness1734
pathos1739
chastity1760
vigour1774
prettyism1789
mannerism1803
serio-comic1805
actuality1812
largeness1824
local colour1829
subjectivitya1834
idealism1841
pastoralism1842
inartisticalitya1849
academicism1852
realism1856
colour contrast1858
crampedness1858
niggling1858
audacity1859
superreality1859
literalism1860
pseudo-classicism1861
sensationalism1862
sensationism1862
chocolate box1865
pseudo-classicality1867
academism1871
actualism1872
academicalism1874
ethos1875
terribilità1877
local colouring1881
neoclassicism1893
mass effect1902
attack1905
verismo1908
kitsch1921
abstraction1923
self-consciousness1932
surreality1936
tension1941
build-up1942
sprezzatura1957
a1834 S. T. Coleridge Specimens of Table Talk (1835) I. 98 A subjectivity of the poet, as of Milton, who is himself before himself in every thing he writes.
1883 P. Schaff et al. Relig. Encycl. II. 953/2 Characteristics of Hebrew..poetry: 1. Subjectivity. The Hebrew poet deals only with what concerns him personally.
1889 E. Arnold Seas & Lands (1895) iv. 49 ‘Fidelis’ (Agnes Maude Machar), who is frequently called the first of Dominion poetesses, excels in a graceful subjectivity.
1908 Yale Lit. Mag. Mar. 247 Of all the literary forms, the lyric in its frank subjectivity best expresses sentiment.
1995 O. Lee First Intermissions xii. 121 The artist who is sentimentalisch represents reality not objectively but with profound subjectivity. He looks inward, and cries out at what he sees.
b. The quality or condition of viewing things chiefly or exclusively through the medium of one's own mind or individuality; the condition of being dominated by or absorbed in one's personal feelings, thoughts, concerns, etc.; individuality, personality. Also: an instance of this condition.
ΚΠ
1838 J. C. Hare & A. W. Hare Guesses at Truth (ed. 2) 1st Ser. 126 Often..the plural we is..a help to those who cannot get quit of their subjectivity, or write about objects objectively.
1844 W. G. Ward Ideal Christian Church (ed. 2) 79 The vast increase of what is called subjectivity; the very much greater portion of man's life and interest which is occupied in observation of his own thoughts, feelings, and actions.
1871 R. H. Hutton Ess. I. 248 ‘Subjectivity’, as it is called, clouds the eyes; we want to know how far our own individual deficiencies, and sins, and impulses, colour our vision.
1880 Scribner's Monthly 20 117 [Poe's] studies of character were not made from observation, but from acquaintance with himself; and this subjectivity, or egoism, crippled his invention.
1886 W. Pater Ess. from Guardian i. 11 This pioneer of an everybody's literature had his subjectivities.
1922 D. J. Snider Biogr. W. Shakespeare 234 He needs the stage to put the curb on his riotous fancy as well as on his long-winded subjectivity.
1965 R. D. Laing Divided Self (new ed.) iv. 76 The essential feature of a thing as opposed to a person is that a thing has no subjectivity of its own.
1995 P. Gay Naked Heart (1996) Introd. 5 Goethe..had repeatedly voiced a manly distrust of concentration on the self as a descent into morbid subjectivity.
4. = subjectivism n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > subjectivism > [noun]
subjectivitya1834
subjectivism1857
a1834 S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains (1836) I. 294 The nature of Bulls, which will be found always to contain in them a confusion of what the schoolmen would have called—objectivety with subjectivety;—in plain English, the impression of a thing as it exists in itself, and extrinsically, with the image which the mind abstracts from the impression.
1839 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe IV. iii. 230 His [sc. Malebranche's] philosophy..is subjectivity leading objectivity in chains.
1876 W. Fairbairn in Contemp. Rev. June 133 Feuerbach..developed the Hegelian subjectivity into the negation of objective reality.
1908 Philos. Rev. 17 508 He would be glad to agree with the Neo-Realists, and to welcome their assistance in the common warfare against scepticism and subjectivity.
2000 A. Cunningham in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Comp. Christian Thought 359/1 Amidst the chaotic forces of endless relativism and subjectivity, Jung sought for recurrent patterns and themes in the record of human experience.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1803