How is this answer not "good subjective"?

Question

This answer https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/posts/38028/revisions, was labelled with the "citations needed" type flag and the comment here was made Asymmetry of consciousness?. According the the blog on stack overflow about how to include the necessary subjectivity in some "softer" disciplines (his word, not mine) a good subjective question (and so one would presume by extension, answer).

"insist[s] that opinion be backed up with facts and references" even "Use[s] your specific experiences to back up your opinions". http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/

The answer certainly fulfils the first criteria, and as far as I can see does not contravene any of the others on the blog post.

The comment suggests that the answer could be made more objective by using the form "Philosopher X would say...". The respondent has backed up their opinion using widely accepted facts of science. Whilst these are obviously not completely objective, to suggest that a speculation about what a philosopher might have said on the matter is more objective is baffling to say the least.

If the answer is really being flagged because it doesn't contain reference to an accepted philosopher, then shouldn't we just be honest about that instead of trying to back up what is essentially a community preference with the erroneous concept that it is somehow the only way to provide objective answers.

I should say before anyone spends their time posting links to the many meta posts that have covered this topic, I've read most of them, I'm well aware of what the preference of the moderators/community seems to be with regards to referencing philosophers rather than "doing philosophy". My point is that this preference is not being declared honestly in the comments and flags, it is being hidden behind a the guise of quest for objectivity. This is not only misleading to those trying to get involved in the site, but it is unnecessarily demeaning to the people who may have put a considerable amount of time into researching an answer to be told it is not objective enough when highly voted answers above theirs seem to contain nothing but speculative opinion.

The answer I'm referring to was as objective as any other answer to this question (perhaps more so). I think it would be best to refrain from risking an insult to the person who wrote it by claiming it is not, and just honestly say that currently, the community prefers answers from accepted philosophers.

Answer 1

The answer in question, while representing a valid and popular philosophical position, is in my opinion too subjective because it presents itself as the absolute truth. It's misleading and academically dishonest to represent physicalism as the consensus position in philosophy of mind. Any answer that does this is indeed "too subjective" for its misrepresentation of the facts: physicalism is but one position in philosophy of mind, and stating it "as is" as though there could be no other truth does not make for an appropriate answer.

Answer 2

Given the SE voting system, there's a certain amount of subjectivity you can (rightly or wrongly) sneak into an answer just by making sure it's well written and has a neutral tone of voice.

But in general, we follow the Wikipedia policy that the info we provide needs to be vetted more thoroughly than just the local system can handle. Publication may not be a perfect vetting mechanism, but it does mean that something has been reviewed by experts and judged worthy.

The difficulty in our field is that it can be challenging at a glance to tell the crackpots from the geniuses. I happen to personally believe I'm a brilliant philosopher for the ages. But I accept that I have not yet accomplished the work necessary for you (or anyone else) to give me the benefit of the doubt on that score.

Answer 3

There is a balance between maintaining quality content and an unreasonably high barrier to entry.

The answer I gave was given in earnest. Was it well cited? No. Frankly, I haven't taken the time to dust off my books. I don't think users expect every answer to be textbook quality. Sometimes a lead or an idea is sufficient.

Must an answer consider every single possibility? I believe this would be unreasonably burdensome. Although my answer presented a certain point of view, I did not suggest that mine was the only answer. These forums allow for multiple answers, all with their own up-votes, for a reason; this is the reason. I have given my answer according to my worldview and my philosophy. There is plenty of space for another answer from another worldview.

I argue that only answers which claim to have listed all possibilities/possible views are the ones which actually violate the concerns of this meta. How can I claim to know all of the ways this question can be answered? Doing so does not acknowledge other possibilities.

@Isaacson:

If the answer is really being flagged because it doesn't contain reference to an accepted philosopher, then shouldn't we just be honest about that instead of trying to back up what is essentially a community preference with the erroneous concept that it is somehow the only way to provide objective answers.

I agree with this assessment by @Isaacson, though I am a bit hesitant to presume to know the motives or intentions of others.

If this assessment is true, I find it strange that only answers derived from the works of "accepted" philosophers are acceptable. On the Physics SE, you aren't required to cite physicists, or to give answers wholly derived therefrom. Certainly this is a valuable feature, but it is not a requirement.

@commando:

It's misleading and academically dishonest to represent physicalism as the consensus position in philosophy of mind.

I never said this. This is a question and answer forum. Unless every single answer is prefaced by "this is one possible solution" and "this is not the absolute truth" then every answer would fail the "test of subjectivity." Readers know that answers given are by other users, and it is unreasonable to think that any given reader will assume that the answer given is an "absolute truth" without any other possibilities.

The voting of each answer by other users with varying levels of privilege is how content is vetted. The person who asked the question and other readers can decide for themselves which is the best answer, and also which answers are valuable. To assume to know why a reader finds one answer more valuable than another is to assume that you fully understand that person, an assumption I think is a bit inappropriate.

If you have a better answer to the question, then please give it. If my answer is inferior then it will suffer fewer upvotes and fade away or be otherwise disregarded. We don't need to waste our time solving a problem that the mechanisms of the SE forum have already solved.

Answer 4

Without either having the merit of being previously considered by the tradition, or giving us useful and interesting consequences, an opinion is not philosophy, just hearsay.

I am a strong proponent for entries that do not rely on references. The vast majority of my posts, including the most popular ones, have none, and no one complains. For example here or here. So for me not to step in here and defend someone else for similar action would be irresponsible.

If an observation has such broad currency that attributing it to someone would be silly, comes from a combination of too many current ideas at once, or is compelling and logically complete on its own, then where it comes from is too hard to describe, and not really helpful.

But philosophy affords argument, which is not possible unless the support leads back to a set of ideas that one can accept or reject on their own merit.

This post is an opinion, rather than an argument because it does not base itself on something, or identify the center of the notion presented. Physicalism that is not based on some realistic weakness of idealism or some broader argument really is just an opinion. An opinion, used as a basis and followed with other arguments that support either intuitively compelling or common positions, is still well considered, and as noted above, is well received here.

But the entire content here is the single idea without support for it or proof of its usefulness by deriving interesting results from it.