_Objective_ and _subjective_ are also a troublesome pair. A
thing is objective if it is an actual object or being, if it exists in
itself rather than in our surmises. A thing is subjective if it is the
creature of a state of mind, if it has its existence in the thought or
imagination of some person or other. Thus if I meet a bear in the wilds,
that bear is objective; whatever may be the state of my thoughts, _he is
there_--and it would be to my advantage to reckon with this fact. But
if a child who is sent off to bed alone says there is a bear in the room,
the bear is subjective; it is not a living monster that will devour
anybody, but a creature called into the mind of the child through dread.
EXERCISE - Opposites
Study the following words in pairs. Consult the dictionary for actual
meanings. Then test your knowledge by embodying each word of each pair in
a sentence, or in an illustration like those of the race-track and the
bear in the preceding paragraphs.
superior, inferior concord, discord
export, import domestic, foreign
fact, fiction prose, poetry
verbal, oral literal, figurative
predecessor, successor genuine, artificial
positive, negative practical, theoretical
optimism, pessimism finite, infinite
longitude, latitude evolution, revolution
oriental, occidental pathos, bathos
sacred, profane military, civil
clergy, laity capital, labor
ingress, egress element, compound
horizontal, perpendicular competition, cooeperation
predestination, freewill universal, particular
extrinsic, intrinsic inflation, deflation
dorsal, ventral acid, alkali
synonym, antonym prologue, epilogue
nadir, zenith amateur, connoisseur
anterior, posterior stoic, epicure
ordinal, cardinal centripetal, centrifugal
stalagmite, stalactite orthodox, heterodox
homogeneous, heterogeneous monogamy, polygamy
induction, deduction egoism, altruism
Unitarian, Trinitarian concentric, eccentric
herbivorous, carnivorous deciduous, perennial
esoteric, exoteric endogen, exogen
vertebrate, invertebrate catalectic, acatalectic
Pairs of the second type are made up of words which are often confused by
careless writers and speakers, and which should be accurately
discriminated.
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