Knowledge can be found in two types, knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description. Knowledge by acquaintance involves knowledge which we acquire through experience while knowledge by description is that knowledge we obtain by the media, including newspapers and television or other sources of information like other people. Knowledge we experience is individualistic and independent as it is associated with our perception of things. For example if I were at a city, besides the knowledge by description I obtain, I would have to some extent a knowledge by acquaintance if I ever bothered to experience it or appreciate it (positively or negatively). This perspective of mine is mine alone and another person would not experience the same emotional attachment I have experienced and this is why this knowledge can also be termed as private and a knowledge only you can understand. Nevertheless it is still knowledge and this is the knowledge that is based on opinion. Also there is a possibility of biased knowledge where we have a biased opinion based on our knowledge by description.
Knowledge by description is largely based on facts that we are provided with but is less individualistic than knowledge by acquaintance. However it is also ignorant to dismiss this knowledge as not opinionated. Even though it is not restricted to one person, it is still the opinion of everyone. This could be debatable as one can term an opinion as something that can be rebuked by someone with a different perspective. But how many different perspectives are on a fact? We could always argue that what I believe is true you may not believe but would I contradict the fact that Paris is the capital of France? If I cannot contradict it, it cannot be opinion. Then again we could say fact is a universally accepted opinion and that someone had to come up with that opinion to make it a fact and all facts are opinions. Yet when I think of an opinion I think of something that can be contradicted and is based on perspective. If I think Paris is the capital of France, chances are unlikely that you will believe it is the capital of Germany. We could say that opinion does undergo a transition when it is universally accepted after which it becomes a fact. We could also argue that all facts are also based on opinions that have been created over the course of time. This too is possible but then leads us to conclude that all knowledge Is opinion. If that’s so then where does fact even begin? If there is no beginning to opinion then we are confronted with a phenomenon similar to the chicken and egg phenomenon.
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Paris is the capital of France.
1. Someone proposed that Paris be considered the capital of France. In his opinion, Paris should be considered the capital of France. Other people, agreed with his opinion, and their concurrence in opinion, led to Paris becoming the capital of France. This opinion, over the course of time, was converted, via belief and trust in those wise men who decided to make it the capital, into a "fact" as it is known to be today. However, the basis of the knowledge that Paris is the capital of France still lies in the opinion of those men who believed that it should be made the capital.
2. What led to the belief of the first man (the one who proposed making Paris the capital)? What led to his belief that Paris should be made capital? The "fact" that Paris was the economic stronghold of France? Again, his opinion that Paris was the economic stronghold. What defines an economic stronghold? Again, that definition is based on the opinion of the definition-giver, as to what he "believes" (in his opinion, again) should be the definition of an economic stronghold. So all the so called "facts" are merely based on opinions which seem to fit human understanding, it is what provides the closest answer to mere human conception.
3. What is a capital? The definition of a capital, according to the oh-so-trusted wikipedia, reads "It is almost always the city which physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of the seat of government and fixed by law.". Now the "fact" that this is the definition of a capital also relies on someone's opinion on what they believe should be the function of a capital. Also, the words used the definition are merely extensions of other opinions. What is an office? The definition of the office again, depended on someone's opinion. What is the government? What is Law? All questions to which the answers are based in opinion.
I am not saying that Paris is NOT the capital of France. I admit it is. I am merely saying that Paris is the capital of France for those in whose opinion Paris is the capital of France.
This eliminates the whole chicken-egg phenomenon. Knowledge exists, but it is in the form of opinions which have been transformed over time, accepted by society and postulated (again by virtue of having a majority of people supporting the postulation, through their "opinions") to be facts. All facts are based in opinions. All knowledge is opinion.
A question: Is the understanding of opinion, in itself, an opinion?
If you are so interested in finding the opinion and definition behind everything. let us remember that even the word opinion is opinionated and the man who decided to make opinion the opinion it is today is based on his own opinion.=) According to that man an opinion is private and we have the ability to contradict it. As you said Paris is not the capital of Germany but the capital of France. I am not saying that it was earlier based on that widespread opinion... all im saying its changed into a fact that cannot be contradicted academically at least unless you decide to personally go to the prime minister and president and give him a justification as to why you think Nice should be the capital instead of France. Because its a fact now we are not going to sit and contradict it.
"I am not saying that Paris is NOT the capital of France. I admit it is. I am merely saying that Paris is the capital of France for those in whose opinion Paris is the capital of France."
Those whose opinion paris is the capital of France. I doubt any one would say it isnt.
Because everything you say is based on opinion which is further based on opinion and so on. We DO see a cycle where there is no beginning and THAT is the chicken egg phenomenon.
Also if everything remains an opinion then our mere existence is an opinion. An opinion by God. But in whose opinion does God exist. We'll keep asking question after question and come to the conclusion that the universe is an opinion.
So the real question is,
Does opinion become fact?
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