Opinion vs truth

Re: i beg to differ


But since "any particular issue" potentially includes issues that involve "math problems," you're implicitly claiming that mathematical knowledge is a matter of personal opinion. 2+2=4 is something I (and, I hope, you) think, but it's not an opinion. Another thing I think is that walking into the path of an oncoming truck is likely to kill me. This might be an opinion, but it's one that has a truth value: it can be proven--the hard way, if necessary--to be right or wrong.

If all you're saying is that everyone has biases they can't always escape, great. No arguments there. But why try to stretch this definition to encompass something as grandiose as "every single thing we think"?

There is nothing wrong with holding an opinion, we come by them naturally. We inherit the opinions of our family. The classroom and church exist to provide the young with opinions This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Values and cultural expectations about the world and how we fit into it are important in defining who we are. Opinions are the foundations on which we interact with the world around us.

Sometimes opinions and values that have endured for a thousand years are no longer applicable, or fashion has deemed them obsolete. Chauvinism about ones "race" or "sex" were widely accepted as self-evident and true only yesterday. Today, after a long and difficult struggle, sexual and racial chauvinism has been publicly abandoned in Western Civilization. Hopefully, one day the whole of our species will have abandoned the specious idea that a person is inherently better or worse depending upon their ethnic origins or sexual plumbing.

The important thing to cultivate is openness to alternatives. In every situation I can think of there are multiple alternatives. Alternatives range from what seem to be silly extremes, to slight differences. The better and greater one's education, generally the more open one is to the possibility that a differing opinion is as good as, or better than the opinions we so cherish. Openness (the willingness to think "differently") to differing opinions has to be balanced with objectivity. What would result if we were to change out opinion? Would we and the world suffer less, or more?

tigersheart wrote:


really. what about considerations? Inquieries? Thoughts come in many shapes and hues.

You're at a crossroads and you're wondering, "left or right?". How is that an opinion?

Also, that not all thoughts are opinions is a fact, regardless of what you or I might think about it.

Shapeless wrote:


Nor here. But I believe that to shed light on these biases, to work with them and determine their value is a way of spiritual growth.


Asherman wrote:


I am not so sure I agree. I once studied philosophy briefly under a professor who'd written his doctorate on Kant. The shame with him was that his head was so full of learned thoughts that he couldn't respond with his own words, only with quotes. To me it seemed as if he had lost his opinions because of education.
Later I read one of his books, and it was the same thing. A string of quotes tied together by empty monologue.