ARE ALL OPINIONS EQUAL?

Are all opinions equal?

Isabella Hernández Landivar

Canadian Mennonite University

September 24, 2023

Psychology-1010: Introduction to Psychology I: Foundations

Dr. Heather Campbell-Ens

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Socrates, while awaiting his execution to take place, said to his friend Crito “Don't

you think it, that one shouldn't respect all human opinions but only some and not others?”

(Pojman & Vaughn, 2011, 60) he says this to his friend while Crito is trying to get Socrates to

escape from the prison where the city of Athens has wrongfully convicted him to die by

execution for the crime of ‘corrupting the youth’, he then goes on to state that “Good

opinions are those held by people with understanding, whereas bad ones are those of people

without it” (Pojman & Vaughn, 2011, 60), I wanted to start my paper with these two quotes

from the well-known dialogue, written by the philosophist Plato, ‘Crito’ because I for one

find it remarkable how the words of a man dead since the year 399 B.C.E still ring so true in

today's society.

I am not quite sure whether it is a matter of all opinions being equally valid or all

opinions being taken as equally valid, I believe it is safe to say that nowadays there are a lot

of opinions that are not backed up by any kind of scientific evidence or any kind of valid

knowledge of any subject, that are still believed by a lot of people and worse of all, these

opinions are being used in ways that affect large populations of people that might not agree

with these opinions at all, politics is the first thing that I can think of when this subject arises,

I believe that politics in many corners of the globe can be reduced to a game of manipulation,

and I have recently been the witness to this in the elections in my country, people with no

understanding at all of the motives and machinations of the people they are voting for, and

blinded by the things they have been promised by these parties, make incorrect decisions that

at the end of the day affect not only them and their lives but the lives of every single person

in that country.

Opinion, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is ‘a view, judgment, or

appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter’ (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). One very
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crucial point that I think that some people tend to forget about is that their opinions are not

facts, we can just look at how opinions are formed as opposed to how facts are established to

immediately distinguish any similarity between the two, opinions are formed through

personal experience, they are subjective and depend entirely on someone's emotions and the

way that they individually analyze a situation and come to a conclusion that satisfies them

and their beliefs, facts on the other hand, as stated by Discovery, are ‘an observation that's

been confirmed so many times that scientists can, for all intents and purposes, accept it as

"true."’(Hamer, 2019), they are objective because they are solely based on scientific

evidence, facts will often use numbers, statistics, dates, and even measurements, but most

importantly what lets us know that facts are science and not just someone's belief is that facts

are falsifiable, which means that they can be proven false at any point by more recent

evidence, whereas opinions are statements that are neither true nor false.

I believe that not all opinions are equally valid, I am in agreement that everyone in

this world is entitled to their own opinion but that does not mean that their opinions have the

same value or merit as the opinion of someone with more knowledge on the subject, it is

simply a matter of some critical thinking and it is as Socrates said “we shouldn't care all that

much about what the populace says of us but what about the experts on the matters will say”

(Pojman & Vaughn, 2011, 61), even Socrates who lived and died so many centuries ago

knew that the only opinion that truly has value in any given situation is the opinion of the

person with the most knowledge on the matter, as I said I believe that this is a matter of

simply some critical thinking, clearly if I ever needed medical assistance for any subject the

first person I would consult would be a doctor, not my pastor or the local grocery store

owner, in the same way if I felt that I ever needed some spiritual guidance you would not see

me rushing to make an appointment with my doctor.

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References

Hammer, A. (2019, August 1). What’s the difference between a fact, a hypothesis, a
theory, and a law in science? Discovery.
https://www.discovery.com/science/Difference-Between-Fact-Hypothesis-Theory-
Law-Science

Palm Beach State College. (n.d.). Fact or opinion - Palm Beach State College. Fact or
Opinion? https://www.palmbeachstate.edu/slc/Documents/fact%20or%20opinion
%20hints.pdf

Pojman, L. P., & Vaughn, L. (2011). Classics of Philosophy (Third). Oxford University
Press.

Warren, C. (2017, June 19). Your right to an opinion does not make your opinion valid.
Psychology Today.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/naked-truth/201706/your-right-opinion-
does-not-make-your-opinion-valid