Facts, Opinions, And Apples
If you’re like me, you thoroughly enjoy CNN’s new apple commercial. It is a succinct and playful address of an odd point of confusion that has infiltrated our daily lives. If you haven’t had the chance to see it (or Colbert’s late night re-imagining,) look it up. I actually lead a class on that same theme of distinguishing fact and opinion. I’d like to take the following lines to offer my 5 point paradigm to those 2 concepts (because that’s the kind of math I do.) This is my own model, but see how it sits with you.
Fact. A fact is a statement that is not only true, but it can be proven true. Anyone else would conclude the same statement given the same criteria. If a statement does not meet those features, it cannot truly be called a fact. It will fall to one of the other categories. Example: “It is raining outside.” I and anyone else can go outside and verify that claim. It does not require any belief or value system.
Opinion. Anything that relies on judgement, belief, or prediction, anything that cannot be proved or disproved, is opinion. If you say that X is better than Y, that’s a judgement call. I can’t prove something like that. If you say X is larger than Y, that is something I could measure, I could verify. Example: “It is cold outside.” Growing up in Alaska verses Arizona will change what temperature you qualify as “cold.” Prediction is thrown in here because if it hasn’t happened yet, it’s difficult to prove. Generally though, predictions will fall into the next category.
Opinions we treat as facts. For reasons of practicality and to function in society, we sometimes treat opinions as fact. Note, that doesn’t actually make them fact. Your best friend’s movie review, grandma’s cooking rules, any religious belief you hold, would fall into this category. They’re not verifiable, but you may hold to them like they are fact because of the way they affect your life. Example: “It is going to rain tomorrow.” We can’t prove something that hasn’t happened but if a trusted meteorologist predicts it, most of us will treat it like a fact and carry an umbrella, though we all have examples where that umbrella has gone unused.
Facts of opinion. There is also a tricky category where someone is making a claim about an opinion. Example: “Frank says it’s cold outside.” That statement is a fact. It is a fact that Frank believes that. It’s cold outside is an opinion but it is a fact that it’s Frank’s opinion. Same thing holds true for “John believes the world exists on the back of a turtle.” The world existing on the back of a turtle is an opinion, even if it is fact that John believes it.
Sometimes you’re wrong. This final category harkens back to Neil deGrasse Tyson’s 5th rule of discovery and is vital to any truth paradigm. As much flexibility as the other categories give you, there is still plenty of opportunity for you to be plain wrong. If you make a claim and it can be proven to not be the case, the claim doesn’t become an opinion that you have a right to, the claim is just wrong. That’s fine. Sometimes being wrong can be useful and lead to growth. When being wrong is defended as a legitimate alternative and given as much value as stating facts, that’s when we have issues.
Let’s keep apples, apples. The world is plenty confusing without equating claims of apple to claims of orange.
