Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Socratic Seminar: Do you have the right to your own opinion?

Although I do agree that we do have a right to have an opinion in any circumstance, I also agree with the author in that we don't have the right to impose our opinion on others because we think that our opinion is more correct than the other person's. On several issues, typically hot button issues, opinions are based on religious affiliation, personal experience, and/or research on the subject, but what needs to be understood is no matter how much research a person does whether it be within themselves or on a computer, they will never be able to understand everything of anything, it is physically impossible (unless you have some sort of divine power and you are able to read everyone's mind and know the repercussions the opinions will have on a grander scale [in short, you must probably be God]). When a person "enforces" their right to their opinion they are making a proclamation that their opinion is the right one, and since the person they're discussing with refuses to accept the knowledge being so kindly given to them, they are ending the conversation. It is because people use their right to their opinion as a sort of end all be all  for the conversation without backing their opinion up with the proper information that it becomes a fallacious argument. So in a more detailed sense, we do have the right to have an opinion, but you have the duty to make sure that if you ever impose your opinion you have the proper information to back up your claim and accept knowledge given to us so that when the conversation ends you can have a better understanding of the other person's opinion.

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