A Matter of Fact

[Kevin]

what the hell is wrong with you people??? now you got me thinking and i dont like it.

 

[Tsunulia]

what the hell is wrong with you people??? now you got me thinking and i dont like it.

If you don't like this then you wouldn't like Evangelion

 

[Kevin]

no, i like questions like this. it gets my brain going and i learn something.

 

[SLVRSR4]

it's 3:15 and i've learned something that's been making me think about since i first learned about facts and opinions!

 

[Manic]

I never realized how many people couldn't tell the difference between an opinion and a fact.

Opinions vary from person to person. Even if it is a consensus, it's probably still an opinion because it can't be proven. It can be proven that there is a consensus, but that only makes the consensus fact, not factual. The consensus exists, but what it pertains to isn't necessarily a fact.

Facts can be proven. Opinions cannot be proven.

Is Paul Walker a good actor? That depends on whom you're asking. Thus, any answer would be an opinion.

Do humans need air to live? Yes, and that is a fact. It doesn't matter who you ask; everyone who lives, breathes.

Is the sky blue? This is a tricky one. It's an opinion. Why? Because you can actually get different answers for this one. Someone could easily say the sky is light-blue or periwinkle. Blue is a relative term, because so many people have broader and narrower opinions on which colors they consider "blue." Just go to a hardware store with someone of the opposite sex, look at a color palette, and see how many colors you both name differently.

 

[Batty for Bats!]

Abaddon tickles my pickle at strange times in the darkness of night. I have nothing to add or reject.

 

[Kevin]

um...batty...i think you should file a report or something...

 

[redmarvel]

Facts can be proven scientifically... Opinions have yet to be proven. However, sometimes "facts" are disproven over time and once again become opinions. For example Darwin's theory of evolution was accepted as fact until it was proven that a number of steps on the evolutionary ladder were falsified or unproven, that makes it just opinion.

 

[Ronny Shade]

I don't think Paul Walker is a bad actor.


He's not a terribly skilled actor, but he's not horrible.




I find Martin Lawrence funnny on rare occasions

 

[Ronny Shade]

I never realized how many people couldn't tell the difference between an opinion and a fact.

Opinions vary from person to person. Even if it is a consensus, it's probably still an opinion because it can't be proven. It can be proven that there is a consensus, but that only makes the consensus fact, not factual. The consensus exists, but what it pertains to isn't necessarily a fact.

Facts can be proven. Opinions cannot be proven.

Is Paul Walker a good actor? That depends on whom you're asking. Thus, any answer would be an opinion.

Do humans need air to live? Yes, and that is a fact. It doesn't matter who you ask; everyone who lives, breathes.

Is the sky blue? This is a tricky one. It's an opinion. Why? Because you can actually get different answers for this one. Someone could easily say the sky is light-blue or periwinkle. Blue is a relative term, because so many people have broader and narrower opinions on which colors they consider "blue." Just go to a hardware store with someone of the opposite sex, look at a color palette, and see how many colors you both name differently.

Here's the problem with your reasoning: Almost nothing can actually be conclusively "proven"

 

[Danalys]

facts depend on the frame work in which they are observed. as for peoples acting skill people either respond to the character or they don't simple as that. now that might be because of the character or the acting. the skill might be subtle and thus less easily noticed and lost on some. if the skill is noticed and seen to be bad generally then it would say something about the fans of that skill. be that positive or negative. thus commenting on society at large.

 

[Abaddon]

I'll bump this with a question:

"You are smart." Is that statement a fact or an opinion?

 

[Danalys]

if we can agree on a definition which the person can be tested against then it could be true.

 

[Abaddon]

Who is "we"?

Abaddon tickles my pickle at strange times in the darkness of night. I have nothing to add or reject.

I also tickled it when it was a cucumber,you just didn't notice.

 

[Danalys]

whoever's around at the time.

 

[Abaddon]

Then it would only be fact or opinion for those people.


as an aside I'm very happy knowing others are taking away something from this discussion.

 

[Danalys]

definitions are malable so theres no other way. the use of language must be agreed before anything can be tested the test must be agreed. logic can test the test. but it's no good testing for smartness if smartnesses definition isn't agreed. even logic was agreed on mostly because it got better results where needed. we often see things by the effects. smart people do or say smart things. most people when they hear a smart thing can think it through them self. if it rings true then it is smart especially if it is something they can't imagine themselves thinking of. smartness in anyone thing is relative to the people around you's smartness.

 

[Ronny Shade]

when you seriously boil it down to provable vs unprovable, there are no facts.

 

[Danalys]

there are opinions with greater backing behind them tho. i call them facts

 

[Ronny Shade]

right. But as far as I'm concerned there isn't an "conclusive" proof of anything (but that's also an opinion)

 

[Danalys]

you don't get much done thinking that way. i have an idea of reality i live by it will either work or not.

 

[Abaddon]

It's like being in a box,and being able to comment on it being a box(or not,depending on a person's perspective),but not being able to get out of it to get a better look.

 

[Carter]

They're both the opinion of the person making the comment

 

[Batty for Bats!]

Fact sounds more classy. Opinion sounds like some stiff with his thumb up his ass. People always use the word FACT just to sound intelligent.

 

[Phaser]

I don't think an opinion can ever be a fact, unless it is a fact itself which can't be logically or scientifically disproved. Of course, opinions can be based on facts and that is the very criteria for calculating or judging the relative merits or validity of any opinion - it's basis in fact.