I do not need to write a dictionary to see that other people, in this thread, seem to agree with me that "perspectives" are just "opinions" and nothing more.

Is this yet another *PERSONAL INSULT*???

But seriously, we can discuss 'perspectives' all day long. Tell me when to begin.

Should I reach for a dictionary in order to philosophize with you???

I am not ignorant, nameless, despite your insinuation otherwise.

Goodbye, come back anytime!

... don't think so.
nameless out

You can form a circle jerk and agree with each other that a cow is a horse.

It's fine for you alone, but I'll win the race with my version of a horse.

A group of ignorant people remains a group of ignorant people, perhaps semi-literate and justifying each other's egos in a daisy chain.

I'm unimpressed. It is not 'slander', son, to call ignorance ignorance, which is what I did. No value judgement, just calling a spade a spade. Willful ignorance (which appears to be what you are doing) is called stupidity. If the shoe fits, son, wear it.

Nope, just an observation. Take it, though, as your juvenile ego must.

It would be fruitless as you are ignorant of the meaning of the word beyond your own imagination, and refuse to learn.

Nah, that would take 'critical thought', but you'd need to be 'literate' to have a meaningful discussion with me.

(The proof is in the pudding...)
My error. I thought that there might be things that you didn't already know. I thought that everyone was ignorant of many things, but I guess that you are the one exception. But I'll let others sit at your feet and feed on all the knowledge and wisdom that (trickles down that) you have accumulated in all your years...


Nah, it would be fruitless, last word is yours.
Back to your ego circle jerk...

An opinion is what someone thinks as opposed to what someone knows.

An opinion is what someone thinks as opposed to what someone knows.

Well, knowledge and opinion (belief) are not opposed, because if I know some proposition is true, then I also believe it is true. So, rather than belief and knowledge being opposed, knowledge actually implies belief. But, of course, the converse is not true. Belief does not imply knowledge, although as we have seen, neither does belief imply that you do not know, either.

I'm not speaking of opinion in the context of belief as the acceptance of a proposition. I'm speaking of opinion in the context of a belief that stands on insufficient evidence, or the complete lack thereof. Any opinion can also be expressed as a sentiment that does not express an actual fact about reality.

That implies that all opinions could become more than opinion by gaining some knowledge. That ignores the cases where there is no knowledge to gain. Such claims will always be opinion and nothing more. Examples included so far are "classical music is awful" and "strawberry ice cream is the best flavor of ice cream". Certainly you don't believe that either of these things could ever be based on facts. That is what distinguishes an opinion from a belief. You can believe both "the Statue of Liberty is 900 feet tall" and "classical music is awful" but only one of them is an opinion.

I completely agree.

Why can't I express the opinion that the Statue is 600 feet tall, and then be shown wrong? Or, express the opinion that it is 900 feet tall, and then be shown right? And opinion may be just a guess, and a guess may be lucky or unlucky.

Replace the word "opinion" with the word "belief" and I agree. I understand "opinion" to mean "a belief not made true or false by any fact". When I ask for someone's opinion, I don't attempt to verify it. I accept that it's just their opinion and that it isn't grounded in fact.

But that is not how "opinion" is always used.

I agree. We say lots of silly things. Did you know that it never really rains cats and dogs?

"Facts are objective expressions about entities, events and their properties. Opinions are subjective expressions that describe people's sentiments or feelings about entities, events and their properties." Handbook of Natural Language Processing, Second Edition

It's pretty simple.

I'm trying to figure out what your point is. You don't seem to be disagreeing with me about facts vs. opinions. You are simply saying the word "opinion" has different meanings. This has already been established. So what?

But you seem to be saying that an opinion cannot be a fact.

If you insist on using opinion as a synonym for belief then obviously, beliefs can be true or false based on facts. I've never argued otherwise and of course, you know this. However, opinion in the sense of the word I've been talking about cannot be based on fact. That is their distinguishing feature that makes them opinions rather than true or false beliefs. Do you have anything to say against what I'm actually claiming here?

Not to be repetitive but let me quote this again for you from this textbook:

"Facts are objective expressions about entities, events and their properties. Opinions are subjective expressions that describe people's sentiments or feelings about entities, events and their properties." Handbook of Natural Language Processing, Second Edition

"Facts are objective expressions about entities, events and their properties. Opinions are subjective expressions that describe people's sentiments or feelings about entities, events and their properties." Handbook of Natural Language Processing, Second Edition