How important are opinions and what are they anyway?

How do people form opinions?

Why do people like to express their opinions?

Do you seek out the opinions of others?

If so why?

Opinions are important to the person expressing theirs

Opinion Definition : a belief or judgement that rests on grounds insufficent to produce certainity.
Random house Dictionary of the English Language

I think opinions are the second most important thing there is, next to decisions. In fact, I think opinions are simply mental "result" of decisions. One simply decides "this is what I believe."


I don't think of the expression of opinions as really having an intrinsic "why". Kinda like throwing a rock. Why do people throw rocks? Well, if they're standing next to a lake, it might be to make a splash. Or maybe to see how many times they can make it skip. Or maybe to see how far they can throw.

Likewise expressiing an opinion could be to impress someone with how much you know, or get someone to do something or to elicit a response of some sort. Any number of things.

Not very often actually. When I do it's usually because I want to understand more about the person.

my opinions dont mean much; but, the truth of the Bible, means everything to me. sincerely

to me opinions are not in the least important other than in the process of getting to know somebody. as an agnostic i rarely take a concrete position on any issue. if everything is unknowable then i remain a skeptic on everything. i may see some sense in an issue but rarely commit to it unless its a matter of morals or fairness.

Opinions are unique and personal to the individual and by that, they might be important.

Opinions backed by knowledge and experience might be valuable.

But the average person's opinions may not be so valuable or knowledgeable or useful. One must consider the source to judge the value of an opinion.

In a complex technical environment, opinions are actively sought and studied. Sometimes a little extra knowledge or experience leads to the breakthrough idea that make a solution workable. With an infinite set of solutions, there is an infinite set of "just a little bet better".

Brainstorming.

I think that because a person is capable of holding both, right and wrong opinions, judging an opinion based upon the author alone avoids what I feel should be considered.

What grounds that particular opinion?

Opinions are generally based on personal experience..I usually don't seek out one's opinion, I like to sort things out on my own. In the getting to know someone process I do like to hear their opinions on certain subjects.

many if not most opinions are not based on personal experience at all. americans in general form many opinions about people of foriegn countries whom they've never met. rarely do these generalized opinions of huge groups of people bear any credibility. and of course americans as a whole are often vilified. and we vilify our own government as if it's some living entity. it's not. it's made up of a bunch of people like you and me most filling jobs they were hired to do and were not elected to do. the big brother we often refer to is our neighbor. it's all quite absurd these opinions we form.

C.S.

The "Right or wrong" of opinions is itself an opinion.

I think the question of what constitutes and opinion is paramount.

Daytime posted the following definition:



Based on that definition, I actually have very few opinions. Most of my opinions would have to do with spiritual ideas.

If I go outside and look up to see a cloudless sunny sky. It is my opinion that the sky is sunny and cloudless, or is that a fact.

Are there such things a facts?

Or do you hold the opinion that all is opinion?

I've studied the sciences my entire life. I believe that I was learning facts for the most part. Clearly science doesn't know everything, so there are some things within science that are indeed speculation and therefore open to opinion.

However, there are many things that appear to be factual (i.e. concretely repeatable with an outstanding degree of certainty).

Is it fair to consider those things to be "facts"?

Is it fair to say that it's a 'fact' that the world is a globe and not flat? If is that considered to be a mere opinion still?

Is it fair to say that it's a fact that the earth revolves on it's axis to produce the days and nights, and that it also travels around the sun in an almost cicular orbit producing the years and seasons. Or is that still considered to be just an opinion?

If there are no such things as 'facts' and all is opinion, then clearly opinions can be extremely important.

On the other hand, if there is a difference between facts and opinions then opinions could potentially be worthless.

Finally, if opinions can ultiamtely lead to the discovery or implementation of 'facts' then maybe opinions are just as important as facts.

I would say that it's a fact that the USA is a Free Democratic Society. One could argue just how 'free' it actually is, and the degree of freedom a person is willing to give it may very well be a matter of opinion.

However, had it not been for our forefather's "opinions" to start a 'free nation' would could potentially be living in a very oppressive fascist state now.

So in that sense, opinions can be extremely important.

Whether an opinion is important or not may depend on how you define an opinion, and whether or not you recognize the existence of 'facts' at all.

The only thing I am willing to bet is a 'fact' is that eveyone does not hold the same opinion of what an opinion even is.

There seems to be three things.
Just off the top of my head.


Facts
Opinions
Beliefs

Facts are opinions that are agreed upon.

Opinions are conclusions, facts or beliefs without an agreement.

Beliefs are conclusions without proof or certainty.

I assume you are talking about “technically correct/incorrect” as opposed to “morally good/bad” when you refer to right/wrong here.

So in general, I would agree. To find out what is workable, one should actually apply an opinion to see if it works.

Another point is that opinions sometimes don’t have any bearing. If you want to build a house, the opinions of a botanist wouldn’t really matter.

So I think that “purpose” is a factor in the grounds for holding opinions as well.

That seems to be a pretty workable set of definitions to me. Quite clear and concise.

A: Opinions are very important as they are a reflections on the person who gives these opinions .
B: People form opinions from their thoughts and experiences .
C: People think their opinions are right and therefore they want to express them .
D : Yes I do seek peoples' opinions about some aspects of life .
Some people are more knowledgeable, some have more experience on the subject in question, some are honest and tell things as they are.....etc .
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I think there are two major categories of opinions.

Passive opinions, and imposing opinions.

Passive opinions are personal opinions that don't truly affect other people.

Imposing opinions are opinions that people attempt to impose on other people.

I find passive opinions interesting.

I find imposing opinions annoying.

There can also be a fine line between the two.

After all, if a person who has an imposing opinion is attempting to impose that opinion onto a person who holds a passive opinion it can often be difficult to tell which is which.

Although, it can often be determined with close examination.

For example supposed there are two couples. One comple is heterosexual, the other couple is homosexual. If they both hold passive opinions about whether relationships should be heterosexual or homosexual then these couples can live side-by-side in harmony with no problems.

However, if one couple feels that their sexual preferences should be absolute and apply to all couples, then clearly there's going to be problems. Yet it only take ONE couple to hold this imposing opinion to destroy the harmony of the society as a whole.

The other couple will then always be on the "defense" trying to justify their passive opinion that every couple should decide their own sexual orientations. That's a passive stance. They are actually suggesting here that all opinions should be passive (i.e. apply only to the people who hold them).

The problems that arise from opinions stems from people who attempt to impose their opinions onto others.

That's when opinions become problematic. It's actually the act of imposition that's problematic.

Some people are out to share their opinions for anyone who might be interested.

Other people are out to impose their opinions on others whether they might be interested or not.