Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Among many different definitions two elements are commonly found: that opinions deal with controversial matters, and that they are capable of rational justification. The first critical point is that one cannot have an opinion about a matter of demonstrable truth or falsehood. One cannot have an ‘opinion’ that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, nor can one legitimately hold an opinion that Australia does not exist. This is not quite as simple or straightforward as it might seem. We are confronted regularly with the tentative nature of knowledge, for the universe is not the certain place many assume it to be. Even within a specific time-space setting, where a body of settled ‘facts’ are not seriously challenged and therefore are not matters of opinion, circumstances change so that what was settled may become disputed. Many once supposedly incontrovertible facts – the indivisibility of the atom, for example – have been proved to be errors. There may well develop a controversy about whether a question formerly not debated is now controversial. Many who hold views on controversial matters firmly deny there is anything in the least questionable or disputable about their convictions. It is a matter of opinion whether a subject is a matter of opinion. In an increasingly sophisticated society, as the certainties of an older, more homogeneous order come to be challenged, ... log in or subscribe to read full text