I was recently in a class where a few of us lowly undergraduates were discussing our opinions on transgenic medical techniques and therapy. Controversial, vaguely defined, budding science that everybody seems to have a strong, emotional opinion on… even if it’s the first time they’ve heard about the subject. There were a lot of statements that started with “I just think”, “well it’s just my opinion” or “I just feel like”. After the class, some rather annoyed students were discussing the speed at which some of their opinions were shot down during the discussion and how that was unfair and discriminatory that was. How can my opinion be “wrong”? After all, everyone is entitled to their opinion, right?
Not really. I should qualify that, we’re all entitled to think or believe what we want; mostly because there’s not really a way for anyone to govern that. That said; it takes a lot more than ‘just feeling’ to make an opinion worth having. Opinions don’t really fall into “right” and “wrong” categories, but you can have a “bad” opinion; they might be unsupported, incoherent, or simply irrelevant.
The trouble is that we’re accustomed to a paradigm in which having an opinion, and calling it our own somehow entitles us to hold it without challenge. This is absurd. You can hold your own opinion, but I can still think that you’re wrong, and I certainly don’t have to be quiet about it (and knowing me, I probably won’t be).
We all hold opinions about everything. They are the basis of the assumptions and decisions we make, they tell us what we think is the best choice. They are founded on our knowledge and our experiences, and they are constantly changing. Some are better founded than others; more defendable, universal. We have better reasons for holding them.
There’s the rub. We can hold opinions that we don’t have much reason for holding. Every time I see a person I’ve never met or a photo of a place I’ve never been, I have an ‘opinion’ of that person or place. I’ve got some basic reasons for feeling the way I do, but they’re pretty weak. I would never try to argue the validity of my opinion. I probably wouldn’t even say it out loud. I certainly would not expect anyone to agree with me. Most importantly, these are the opinions that are easily changed. Someone who knew that same place or person better than I did or had more relevant knowledge than me would have a better opinion. I could learn something from them and edit and update my viewpoint. Knowledge is in no small part about striving for good, well supported opinions on as much one can. We have to recognize when we hold opinions for no good reason, and why this makes them no good opinions.
This is why knowledge depends on discussion. If we want to expand your breadth of experience and the depth of our beliefs, we have to talk about them so that we can develop reasons for holding them. Encouraging people to challenge the opinions of others is a way to develop both of them, and we’re unfortunately going to discover that we hold a lot of bad, unsupported opinions.
Here’s the best way to catch yourself: When we start sentences with “I just think”, or “I just feel”, we’ve already qualified the rest of your sentence as not particularly well supported. We are disclaiming responsibility for the statement we’re about to make. It’s saying “please don’t challenge this”. Let’s try to say “I think”, not “I just think”. We shouldn’t settle for holding opinions that we can’t defend or support.
We should invite the discussion and risk the potential upheaval of our beliefs. What is left standing will be much more valuable.
