Poll: Can an opinion be wrong?

[Jernau]

Example: "It is my opinion that the sun is blue and we all live in 2D!". This statement is completely wrong, but also an opinion. I do not see how it is possible to argue that an opinion is NEVER wrong.

 

[Keepitclean]

if its based on false information it can be wrong

Then it isn't an opinion

Yes, they can. Look at Hitler's opinion on the Jews.

You're definition of opinion is wrong. Or is that just my opinion?

 

[randomrob]

Of course an opinion can be false. And considering the level of intelligence held by 90% of the public, they are likely to be false.

 

[00slash00]

i think bill o'reily would say yes and then yell at you and call you a pinhead. but if you ask a rational person? no, an opinion is not a fact, thus it cant be incorrect

 

[ethaninja]

It's a crazy crazy world we live in. In "my" opinion, I don't believe they can be wrong.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

Well, reading the definition of opinion it isn?t stated that opinions can?t be falsifiable. It is a belief, a conviction, a judgment etc, that isn?t supported by proof and so can?t be described as a fact. That isn?t to say they can?t be supported by experience or evidence that may make them more or less likely than someone else?s opinion.

So yes, they can be wrong and some people opinions might be better supported than others. It's just that opinions don't come with the ame kind of certaty a fact does.

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

Opinion is merely stating one's personal belief in a situation/statement/etc. Therefore, whether or not the situation/statement can be proven false, the belief exists.

The difference:

"My pet is a dog." <-Statement, can be proven true or false through simple observation.
"Dogs are the best pets." <-Opinion, based on complex conditioning due to past experiences and personal evidence that result in a person believing dogs to be superior to other pets.

While later experiences(an experiment) or presented evidence(an argument) may lead to the CHANGING of that opinion, the opinion itself is not wrong.

(I chose to ignore the concept of the morals 'right and 'wrong', because that's just a whole 'nother can o' worms that I don't want to open)

 

[AVATAR_RAGE]

Philosphicaly yes and no.

If an opinion is a belief the it can be proven wrong. For example, if my opion is that the sky is always blue then all the time and I state that "The sky is always blue" then I can be proven wrong/right by the use of knowledge already obtained. So no the sky is not always blue

However if my opinion is that Jeff is a nicer guy than Bob then I cannot be proven wrong because we do not really know what nice is. We have an idea of it, but that can difer from person to person.

 

[binvjoh]

yes, and anyone who contradicts me is a hypocrit

Ha ha! See what you did thar!

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Of course they can. If your opinion is that one race is inferior to another, your opinion is wrong.

Well, depends on what you mean by inferior. Overall, yeah, that opinion'd be wrong. However, races have both advantages and disadvantages. If every race in an rpg had the same stats, would anybody ever pick anything but dwarf? The answer is no, no they would not. Real world example: Being a white male in the US puts you in the "majority," with access to exclusive clubs just by being you, but it also means you're less likely to get a job (Unless it truly is based on merit, then its anybody's game), less likely to get scholarships for college, etc. Advantages and Disadvantages, but no character creation screen for you.

Correction then: one race is not inherently inferior to another.

 

[Vond13]

Opinions are just that, OPINION. There is now way of proving or disproving an opinion. That however does not stop most of them from being stupid.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

Opinions can be wrong. If I say "in my opinion, a basketball is the shape of a cube." That is clearly wrong, even if i believe it to be true.

The statement "in my opinion, a basketball is the shape of a cube" would be true though if you actually believed it. If you want to go into some philosophical shit then we could say things like "how do you know that the ball is really round?", "how can we tell if what we see is the same as what someone else sees?" or "how do we even know that the ball actually exists?". My point is that it's YOUR opinion and it's real to you. I'm not even sure if what you said is actually an opinion but I'm not clear on the definition so I won't go into that.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

What if my opinion is that another persons opinion is wrong?

I'm just curious on what people think of this one.

 

[Kiroy]

The option "it depends" is implied in "yes." It does depend on the opinion, if it is on a work of literature then it can not be wrong, but an opinion on other subjects such as race can obviously be wrong, so my answer is yes.

 

[LitleWaffle]

If someone believes something that is so off the wall, so utterly pants-on-head retarded that only an idiot or a Tea Party Republican could believe it, you bet your ass an opinion can be wrong. No amount of "respecting others' ideas" can overcome the sheer volume of wrong to be found in that sort of stupidity.

^this

*High Fives*

 

[ENKC]

Opinions do not exist in some stasis field in the absence of facts. An opinion is a belief, and if it is plainly contradictory to established fact, then it is FACTUALLY wrong.

 

[Zhukov]

Depends.

If someone voices an opinion based on a qualitative judgement then they cannot be proven wrong. For example, "I think anchovies are delicious," or "I think E.T. for the Atari 2600 is the most fun game ever made."

On the other hand, an opinion based around objective facts can be proven wrong. For example, "I think OJ Simpson was innocent," or "I think the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building on Earth.

Although if you really wanted to get technical you could probably argue that the latter is not really an opinion.

 

[Sven und EIN HUND]

Well.... an opinion is, I suppose, what someone's personal disposition towards something is. There is, however, an undeniably large amount of objectivity in the world, e.g 'Dogs exist', 'Fish do not, in most cases, have feet', 'Healthy grass is green', 'My walls are walls' (Although if you want to get complicated you could argue that everything is merely a perception and is not necessarily happening at all and that life may not exist and we may all not even be here) There is, however, a large amount of definite subjectivity in the world, but a lot of people seem to wave this around incorrectly in some absurd bout to seem intelligent. Let me just say this once, loud and clear. THERE IS MUSIC THAT IS OBJECTIVELY BAD IN COMPARISON TO OTHER MUSIC. FUCKING DEAL WITH IT.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

Voted Yes for this reason.
-Example of "in my opinion" being wrong.-

Person1: In my own opinion strawberry cake is the best cake.
Person2: No you're wrong.
Person1: How can I be wrong, it's an opinion and opinions cannot be proven wrong?
Person2: No you told me 2 days ago red velvet cake is the best cake; has your opinion changed since then I had assumed it had not.
Person1: Oh dear! You are correct the previous statement suggesting that my opinion is that strawberry cake is the best cake is in fact wrong. I had completely forgotten of red velvet cakes existence. I am truly of the opinion that red velvet cake is the best cake.
Person2: You're opinion is a shit one German chocolate FTW.
Person1: stfu u nazi.

An opinion is however just a statement about what a subject believes.
If that is truly it's belief and conviction of said subject then the statement is true or correct in and only in the simple fact that it is the subjects opinion. The substance of a subjects opinion can of course be false/true or unknown like many have already stated based upon what the substance of the statement is.