Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: betty boop

What prevents you from forming an opinion?


253 posted on 10/11/2005 9:31:12 AM PDT by js1138 (Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 249 | View Replies ]


To: js1138; Alamo-Girl; xzins; malakhi; marron
What prevents you from forming an opinion?

Nothing "prevents me." But the fact is I am entirely comfortable with leaving the question wide open, awaiting future developments.

Anyhoot, what would one more "opinion" mean in the grand scope of things? We've already got plenty enough "opinion" in this world. And often enough, opinion turns out to be wrong, sometimes deadly so.

I'm not entirely sure of this, js; but I suspect that you do not much value the legacy we have from classical Greece, while I value it enormously. Reason and logic were first articulated during this period and were seen both by Plato and Aristotle as "mapping" reality. The Greeks -- especially Plato -- drew the distinction between episteme -- that is, "true knowledge" -- and doxa -- that is, "opinion."

The point is episteme and doxa are not "relative terms"; i.e., they do not refer to different degrees of truth. For Plato, they were mutually exclusive.

256 posted on 10/11/2005 10:00:58 AM PDT by betty boop (Nature loves to hide. -- Heraclitus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 253 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson