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Of thoughts, opinions and statements of fact
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This may be the start for many discussions and yet another controversy, but it is a subject that I have at heart, and I will tackle with it anyway.
I divide the way people express themselves in three categories, thoughts, opinions and statements of fact.
Thoughts are personal interpretation of facts, knowing and acknowledging these interpretation may be wrong, and expressing them with humility. When I express my thoughts, I do not expect everybody to share them positively. In facts, I expect many people to argue with their validity, and I am ready defend them, but also to change them if proven wrong, or, at least accept to modify them accordingly.
I will skip to statements of facts now.
Statements of facts are, to me, the exposition of facts as they are, without personal interpretation. That is what historians are supposed to do. I say supposed because not all have been able to extract the facts from their personal interpretation, when they tell them. Some facts, like mathematical, are undeniably facts, and not open for interpretation. In my view, the most difficult thing to do is to observe and relate facts, cut and dry, coldly, unbiased, and without interpretation.
Finally, what are opinions?
They are a mixture of the 2 formerly offered definitions, or so called definitions. They are personal interpretation of facts, presented not as thoughts, but as facts, even if the interpretation is erroneous. I won’t go over why people mostly express opinions, there are too many reasons for it. Opinions are easier to express than thoughts or than statements of facts, because, when expressing them, one shuts off any opposite opinions. An opinionated person is someone who, once he has stated his opinion on something, will not retract it, and will even refuse to discuss it any further.
It is now for you to make yourself an opinion about what I said above. Best of luck! |
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