Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle) / quote 100 of 138
Epistemic versus ontological subjectivity
The fact that conscious states are ontologically subjective, in the sense that they exist only as experienced by a human or animal subject, does not imply that there cannot be a scientifically objective study of conscious states. “Objective” and “subjective” are systematically ambiguous between an ontological and an epistemic sense. In the epistemic sense, there is a distinction between those statements that can be ascertained as true or false independently of the feelings and attitudes of the speakers or hearers and those statements whose truth or falsity depends on those feelings and attitudes. Thus the statement “Jones is six feet tall” is epistemically objective because its truth or falsity has nothing to do with the feelings and attitudes of the speaker and hearer. But the statement “Jones is a nicer person than Smith” is epistemically subjective because its truth or falsity cannot be settled independently of the feelings and attitudes of the participants in the discussion. In addition to this epistemic sense, there is a distinction between two modes of existence.