Crusoe & Epistomologies of the Eye

What degree of subjectivity does Defoe acknowledge in the telling of this story and how does the rigidity or fluidity of these epistemic virtues depend on their intended means?

    The Wonders of this Man’s Life exceed all that (he thinks) is to be found existent; the Life of one Man being scarce capable of a greater Variety.
    The Story is told with Modesty, with Seriousness and with a religious Application of Events to the Uses to which wise Men always apply them (viz.) to the instruction of others by this Example....
    The Editor believes the thing to be a just History of Fact; neither is there any Appearance of Fiction in it: And whoever things, because all such things are dispatch’d, that the Improvement of it, as well to the Diversion, as to the Instruction of the Reader, will be the same....
Robinson Crusoe Pg. 3

Within science, the specific values and related techniques of the self in question may contrast sharply ... This is why the rhetoric of alchemists, Paracelsians and other early modern reformers of knowledge and society rings so strangely in modern (or even eighteenth-century) ears. These visionaries sought wisdom, not just truth, and enlightenment, not just knowledge. Post-seventeenth-century epistemic virtues differ accordingly in their aims, content and means.
Epistomologies of the Eye Pg. 41

    Before the story even begins, the Editor explicitly states that the story contained is one of “Fact”. However, at first glance it seems as though, within even just the preface, it is already rife with subjectivity and contradictions to that statement. Immediately after stating the magnificence of the story as “greater than all others existent”, he claims the story is told with Modesty. Before reading Daston I would likely have just chalked this up as unsubtle nods to an unreliable narrator. However, using Daston’s framework we can see how the Editors epistemic virtues are a lead by the aims and mean of the Editor.
    The aims stated in the preface emphasize the importance of the “instruction of others by this Example”. The means by which the author accomplishes this is though telling an entertaining story full of wonders that “exceed all that (he thinks) is to be found existent”. It goes on further later in the preface to minimize the importance of the story actually being as factual account as adherence to a strictly factual story, as it will not change either the instruction or entertainment of the reader. The aims and means of the story are to teach by example and entertain consequently the virtues held by the author are flexible about adhering to truth or fact.