Opinion = Fact: True or False?

[karlhenning]

I find it mentally and spiritually freeing, to live at peace with the fact that my opinions (and those of others) are one sort of thing, and facts are another.

[Opus106]

"The world is flat" -  opinion or fact?

Define world.

Are you restricting yourself to the Earth or the observable universe (or maybe something else)? Well, in both cases, locally they can be approximated to Euclidean geometry, although it's still not clear how flat (or not) the universe is as a whole.

And whatever I said above are facts. 0:)

[drogulus]

    If you want to have factual opinions you certainly can arrange to do so. The prejudice that opinions are entirely other than facts derives from the common experience that people don't always know whether a question is answered by a fact, a value, a feeling or a preference. If you're careful you can have a factual opinion whenever a fact is at issue. You can say "I don't know", if it's a fact that you don't.

    Buy why would you want to have only factual opinions? I certainly don't want to unless the question calls for a factual response. My tree frog example was chosen to show that many questions are about what you prefer, not what is the case. I might prefer chocolate ice cream, even if there is no chocolate ice cream in the universe or anywhere else. It does no harm to say so, so long as I'm aware that my love of chocolate ice cream instantiates no....ice cream....anywhere.

    IOW nothing exists because of how I feel about it. Just pay attention to this and you'll be OK. If you can't, consider a career in theology, the natural home of confusion on the subject.

[Florestan]

Start a topic on, say, how well did one sleep last night and expect Ernie to come up with an epistemological essay containing a subtle rebuttal of theological falsehoods. One of the small pleasures of GMG.

[karlhenning]

    If you want to have factual opinions you certainly can arrange to do so. The prejudice that opinions are entirely other than facts derives from the common experience that people don't always know whether a question is answered by a fact, a value, a feeling or a preference.

How interesting that you categorically term that a prejudice. I should have called it a misprision.

In any event, I should have thought that not all opinion can (nor need be) "made factual" . . . so perhaps there is a category of consideration, where awareness of opinion as "entirely other than facts" is neither prejudice, mor misprision; but simply, The Case.

Among a small minority, probably, there seems to exist a prejudice that "my opinions, certainly, are factual." A sad, sad case . . . .

[karlhenning]

Start a topic on, say, how well did one sleep last night and expect Ernie to come up with an epistemological essay containing a subtle rebuttal of theological falsehoods. One of the small pleasures of GMG.

QFT + LOL

[DavidW]

Start a topic on, say, how well did one sleep last night and expect Ernie to come up with an epistemological essay containing a subtle rebuttal of theological falsehoods. One of the small pleasures of GMG.

Haha!  Post of the day!

[zamyrabyrd]

Define world.

Are you restricting yourself to the Earth or the observable universe (or maybe something else)? Well, in both cases, locally they can be approximated to Euclidean geometry, although it's still not clear how flat (or not) the universe is as a whole.

And whatever I said above are facts. 0:)

What I was getting at, lots of people over the millenia had opinions about the shape of the earth. Quite a few cultures thought at least it was round but anyways, flat.

ZB

[Opus106]

What I was getting at, lots of people over the millenia had opinions about the shape of the earth. Quite a few cultures thought at least it was round but anyways, flat.

ZB

We have people on both sides of debate: some truly thought that the Earth was flat precisely for the reason I stated. It's not quite an opinion in this case but more of the limit of knowledge. They had do wait for an Eratosthenes. But in the case of Turtles-All-the-Way-Down group, it's ignorance of the difference between opinion and fact.

And re: the last sentence of your post: in most cases, we still behave that way.

[Ten thumbs]

I see that someone here has never changed an opinion. Considering how much we learn through experience that is a considerable feat! 

[karlhenning]

I see that someone here has never changed an opinion. Considering how much we learn through experience that is a considerable feat! 

My mind's made up! I'm not letting experience confuse me!

[petrarch]

If the definition of true is absolute and permanent there are few scientific facts which have held up.  Seems every year "science" reports that something they formally assured us was a fact, verified by empirical evidence, is actually, no longer supported by the data, and we are told of the new "fact" - also veried by the most complete (to date) and compelling (to date) empirical evidence.

Also, all facts rest on a relative perspective, so, for many people the idea that the Sun circles the Earth reflects their experience in a more accurate manner than being told actually it's just the other way 'round.  And the Theory of Relativity might offer support that both views are, in fact, factual.

Well, there are facts and facts, and there are degrees of wrongness. When science improves on "facts" it is usually to be more precise and accurate, not because the earlier facts are just flat wrong (pun intended). Read this: http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm

[The Six]

All the best baseball players are on the Giants.



FACT.