Do people know the difference between fact and opinion?

[dinaarice]

I get the impression that most people feel that their opinion is a fact, anybody catch that wind?

 

[Archivistower]

Is that a fact or an opinion?

 

[Canuck 36]

I like the term I first saw in Chapters when they were promoting that James Fry book 'A Million Little Pieces':

Faction

 

[prometheus the supremo]

i caught some wind once and it didn't smell that great. that's a fact.

 

[Darkstar416]

I caught a smell once and it didn't feel that windy. That's not a fact.

 

[spmarshall]

Wikiality!

 

[dinaarice]

That's what I mean

Who cares?

 

[ganjavih]

I broke wind once and the smell... oh, nevermind.

 

[Observer Walt]

Re: That's what I mean

What an enlightening discussion! |I

Dinnarice: Welcome to the forum.

 

[Greg29Toronto]

See "FOX NEWS"...

 

[dinaarice]

Re: Re: Do people know the difference between fact and opin

Thanks. I tried, but I am not enlightened yet.

Carl Rogers said that we do not learn anything we don't want to learn, and I think nobody wants to learn anything here.

So I'll just spend all my time staring at myself in the mirror:rollin

 

[Abeja de Almirante]

A fact is simply an uncontested opinion.

Take for example geography. Unless you've travelled the globe, you have to accept as fact that Baffin Island even exists, when in the days of early exploration this would simply have been accepted as opinion. It is the amount of faith and trust you have in those providing the information, plus personally obtained evidence, that makes opinion's into what we define as facts.

For example, someone will say that the CN Tower is 1,815 ft 5 in tall. If it's just some nobody saying this, I'd say that was his opinion. However, if it's a CN Tower employee who appears to have been trained in such trivia for tourism info purposes, well, then I'd accept it as fact, or as an uncontested opinion.

 

[Bogtrotter]

Some facts are more absolute that others. The declaration that 'wood is hard' is a fact and an opinion. I guess opinions are based on personal experience so in that regard it is all relative, in other words every person has their own reality- IMHO.

 

[bizorky]

Unless you've travelled the globe, you have to accept as fact that Baffin Island even exists, when in the days of early exploration this would simply have been accepted as opinion. It is the amount of faith and trust you have in those providing the information, plus personally obtained evidence, that makes opinion's into what we define as facts.

So if you have never been to Baffin Island, can you operate on the assumption that it does not exist "factually?"

Concerning personally obtained evidence, have you ever observed a virus in action, ever juggled some molecules individually, written you name with a scattering of atoms?

"Facts" are not as simple as they appear. Everybody can have an opinion.

 

[Abeja de Almirante]

So if you have never been to Baffin Island, can you operate on the assumption that it does not exist "factually?"

You can do whatever you want.

As far as the fact that "wood is hard", IMO this is opinion again. Hard compared to what? If you say it is a fact that wood is hard, and I compare it too titanium, I'd say in my opnion wood is soft. Wood, in its powder form or as balsa is quite soft. In fact, this is why we use wood for shock absoption in railway ties, crash barriers, etc, since it's softer than other substances.