Topics Knowledge

Question How can you think that your opinion is worth anything when all your opinion is is a thought process that came to you as a result of everything that happened in your extremely unique life? If you look at all the other arguments that go against your own beliefs, the people saying them believe them as truth. So do you ever think that you're just as equal as they are, or do you actually think that you're more "on the right track" than they are? Finally, if I always understand and justify why people think the way they do regardless of the subject, then how can I think that my own opinion matters, if, again, my own opinion is only a result of how I see things in my mind, because of everything around me that led to me being who I am today.

Accepted:
August 27, 2009

Comments

There are a couple of ways we might think about the questions you're raising. One is by trying to look for an Archimedean Point, so to speak, that provides some sort of absolute or incontrovertible answer. The other way is to look at how we actually think about these sort of things -- look from the inside. Since I have no Archimedean point available to me, I'll offer the latter sort of response.

What we think does depend on what we've experienced, but even though my life is different from yours, we have lots of common ground to appeal to. Obvious sort of case: if you and I were both to look out my office window, then even though your experience is not just like mine, we'd agree that there's a building directly across from us. We'd also agree that there's a large grassy area behind it, and that there are people wandering around in the vicinity. Other cases of ho-hum agreement among people are more complicated, but we could multiply examples indefinitely.

We can also agree that some people are better positioned to have a view. If I look at an x-ray, my opinion about what I see isn't worth much. I know that, and so does anyone who knows that I have no medical training. But a radiologist can tell a lot. I'll defer to her opinion, and so should any sensible person in my position.

And on it goes. Our ordinary notions of evidence, reasoning and so on clearly can carry us a long way. Add the refinements of science and math and we get even further. By those lights, some people really are more justified in believing certain things than others, and we can come to reasonable consensus about who is who. Some of what "led you to being who you are today" was sound: soaking up the deliverances of your senses, thinking carefully about evidence, taking counsel from those who know more than you.

Two things, however. One is internal to the whole system. There are hard cases, and there may even be unresolvable cases -- from the point of view of our usual conceptions of evidence and reasoning. True though that may be, however, it doesn't undermine the fact that we know a lot, and that not everyone is equally expert on everything.

The other point may be closer to your worry. We could toss everything up in the air and become skeptics about all our usual beliefs and standards. We could do that, but the mere fact that it's possible doesn't give us much of a reason to. There's a larger point here. We can look at knowledge, belief, expertise, etc. notions that call for the sort of Archimedean perspective that we noted above and duly set aside. Some philosophers think that unless we can find such a point (and we can't), then skepticism is the only reasonable response. Most philosophers, for better or worse, think that that's a hopeless approach.

So in short: from the point of view of our usual standards and practices, we have all sorts of reasons to think that some opinions are better than others. If we toss all those standards and practices aside, we're radically adrift. But there's no compelling reason to give ourselves over to the currents.