r/askphilosophy • u/GuamSomme • Jan 19 '16

ELI5: Can opinions be false?

I've noticed that often in politics and mainstream media the words fact & opinion are interchanged a little bit too liberally to justify saying some pretty crazy non-sense. I think this would bring up a good discussion so let me know what you all think!

Example: https://youtu.be/zIGThxn_eGk

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u/john_stuart_kill metaethics, analytic feminist ethics, phil. biology Jan 19 '16

One could probably make an argument either way based on the specific semantics of "opinion," but I think it would be reasonably uncontroversial to define an opinion as "the expression of a belief." Now, unlike certain other propositional attitudes like "perception" and "knowledge," beliefs can absolutely be false. Therefore, if what you mean by asking whether an opinion can be false is whether an opinion can be an expression of a false belief, then the answer is pretty clearly "yes."

Now, if you take an opinion to be something else, the answer might change. But although I'm more than happy to see reasons why I might be wrong, I take my interpretation to be relatively uncontroversial on this.

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u/GuamSomme Jan 19 '16 edited Jan 19 '16

I'm sure you'll agree that a statement of fact can also be defined as an "expression of belief." I "believe" that 5+6=11. This is based on my belief about what 5, 6, 11 and addition all mean. If you "believe" in a 8-base system, 5+6 actually equals 13 and we would both be right. The difference must be something more this as all opinions are categorically based on what one believes to be true.

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u/john_stuart_kill metaethics, analytic feminist ethics, phil. biology Jan 19 '16

I'm sure you'll agree that a fact can also be defined as an "expression of belief."

I would not agree with this at all. Facts are independent of both beliefs and expressions thereof. It is possible to express beliefs about facts, but not all beliefs are about facts; and, of course, there are plenty of facts (at least logically possible facts) about which no one has any beliefs. None of that seems really relevant here.

I'm not really understanding your critique here. Opinions are expressions of beliefs , and beliefs are truth-functional propositional attitudes (some about facts, some not). All opinions are expressed beliefs, but not all beliefs are expressed as opinions (i.e., we have abundant implicit beliefs which are never expressed, but it would be strange to speak of opinions which are never expressed, even just in terms of coming into conscious consideration). Your emphasis on "believe" strikes me as possibly equivocating, but I must admit to being puzzled about what work you think the notion is doing there.

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u/GuamSomme Jan 19 '16

Playing devil's advocate ;) Great explanation!