Fact And Opinion
What is the difference between fact and opinion? I knew until I thought, and thought some more about the subject. I have a better idea of how we use those terms, their role in day to day discussion. I am still unsatisfied with the “distinction” and I know there is a difference. My instinct tells me that I have as much clarity as I need, maybe as much as is possible to have.
I’ll offer this example. Yesterday was a magnificent early spring day. The temperature was close to 70 degrees, with a light breeze, full sunshine. I noticed a ground cover of tiny blue flowers growing at the road side. Also there were several larger yellow flowers, a common variety, in bloom. I retrieved my camera which I always have in my vehicle. I took these photos.
The tiny blue flowers were characteristically bent downward on their stems. The blossom was about the size of the fingernail on your little finger. A flower is to be marveled at in perfection of geometry, and color. All of this has a purpose of course. The bee and other insects flying from blossom to blossom could tell you if you had the language to ask them. I took several photos, wondering what these are named. Somehow it is satisfying to know the proper name of an object. I took a minute or two to do a google search. Those must be Chionodoxa, Glory of the Snow flowers. That is my opinion. They could be Scilla Siberica, Spring Beauty….. I’ll ask a friend whose experience (knowledge) of flowers exceeds my thin and late exposure.
The yellow, more common, and familiar to all of us, flower, is the buttercup. That is a fact. I am certain of it. Why? What reason could I offer? I’ve heard flowers of that combination of formed parts, of that color, which grow to bloom at this time of year,–called buttercups since I can remember. My mother call them buttercups, and her mother…. There is wide agreement that these are buttercups. I am certain. I have a feeling of satisfaction throughout my body that no further research is needed. I am comfortable with “buttercup.” No further action needed. No need to google “yellow flowers blooming in spring.”
But is it remotely possible that I could be wrong? Yes. I could have missed something.
The difference between opinion and fact as expressed by a solitary speaker, myself. I cannot think of anything more to say. The time comes when nothing more is to be said.
“Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent.” –L. Wittgenstein
Damn, wrong again! A good friend commented that my fact example buttercup, is a daffodil. I’ve been wrong before. I didn’t check the assertion against buttercup and daffodil images before hitting the publish button. How many other more consequential matters regarded as facts, might we be wrong about? I’d wager, many.
4 thoughts on “Fact And Opinion”
Interesting musing. That the yellow flower is a daffodil (Jonquil as it is sometimes called) and a member of the Narcissus classification does not mean that this is a fact. We have made up a name based on experience to categorize the world into segments. Perhaps this particular flower only sees to be a daffodil and could actual be a new species based on a genetic mutation. We would not know without further research. And even then, what do we have? A certain knowledge that may or may not be useful to our journey through life.
So, instead, what if we saw a yellow (or blue) flower and said to ourselves that the clear fact is that this is a sign of the change of seasons and left it at that? Just a thought.
Facts are “made up,” constructed and accepted/approved due to tradition, or authority, and thus are acclaimed as uncontravertable. Wittgenstein characterized such features of our discourse as the riverbed. Opinion is analogous to the flow which is held by the river bed. He points out that there is no fixed boundary between the river bed and the river. Everything moves as old Heraclitus said. Wittgenstein concluded that the meaning of any aspect of language could be seen
in its use
.
Um … your photo looks like what around here are popularly called daffodils. I remember them being called jonquils where I grew up. Google “buttercup image” to see the contrast.
Right you are. How easy it is to be wrong about a fact.