Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
- Mortimer Adler's
- Syntopicon
Essays
Opinion:
Editor's
1-minute essay
- Editor's note: the reader will benefit if the following is studied in conjunction
with the essay on "Knowledge"
-
"Opinion" is the great weapon of the skeptic, the one who denies the
reality of particular, or even all, things.
An individual may lay claim to "knowledge," but the skeptic responds
that it is all illusion, all just a misguided matter of opinion.
In other words, the skeptic will emphasize, we cannot mentally apprehend the
object itself, we cannot directly get to whatever it is that we are thinking about. We are
cut-off, isolated, from the world, and it is mediated for us and to us only by our five
senses -- and we must rely on these untrustworthy agents for all that our brains know
about the outside world. As such, lacking the certainty of iron-clad, direct
"knowledge," we are reduced to forming "opinions" about our
environment.
- Opinion is an act of the mind caused by something other
than the object itself which the mind is considering. (Stay with me --
this will be explained.)
Why is "opinion" considered to be one of the famous "great
ideas" of history?
- "Opinion" addresses the very important issue of our
uncertainty, our doubts about knowledge, our doubts regarding that which is real.
It is common to speak of one's right to his or her "own opinions"; but
we do not normally admit to any such right regarding one's "own knowledge." We
say that we have a right to "freedom of thought" -- but, it must be stated, this
right can properly apply only to unsettled matters of opinion, not knowledge.
An opinion may be true or false, right or wrong; but these qualifiers are not used
to describe knowledge. Matters of opinion are subject to conflict, and therefore we speak
of a "consensus of opinion," "expert opinion," or "majority
opinion" to lend weight to our arguments; but we never speak of these in relation to
knowledge.
- It is possible to opine and doubt at the same time, but not
to know and doubt. One single person of knowledge trumps one
million others of mere opinion.
If we discuss a subject for which many interpretations are possible, we are
dealing with matters of opinion; however, if our subject is one which demands only one
view, a subject regarding that on which everyone must agree, we have likely
entered the domain of knowledge. For example, the arithemetic statement, 2 + 2 = 4, cannot
be doubted (though some do) and is therefore an example of knowledge, not opinion.
Opinion lives in a world of probability; knowledge knows only certainty.
Reasonable men and women can properly disagree about matters of opinion -- and still
remain reasonable -- but debate necessarily ceases (among those of reason, at least) when
knowledge enters the room.
This discussion began with a statement indicating that opinion is an "act of
the mind."
- Opinion, in other words, requires a decision, a mental assent
or agreement -- in the absence of absolute knowledge -- to tentatively accept, until
further light becomes available, certain information as true.
This is the nature of "belief" -- an act of the will, a decision to
accept. Aquinas said that religious "faith" is a kind of middle-ground between
mere opinion and knowledge; faith is like opinion in that an act of the will is required,
but faith is also like knowledge in that it possesses a measure of certainty. However,
Aquinas concedes, this sense of reality is a result of grace, a gift from God, and not
primarily a triumph of the human intellect.
This "act of the mind" suggests a deep psychological difference between
opinion and knowledge.
- The person who "knows" does not need to
"believe."
But how much "knowledge" do we really possess in this world?
- Is knowledge, for us, even possible? Or must we be satisfied
with mere opinion?
The great teachers and thinkers of history began debating these questions a long
time ago.
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