Interlocutor

           Blondes with dark eyebrows look better as brunettes. Men with wigs look better without wigs. Natural is always better than artificial.

“That’s just your opinion”.

Of course that’s just my opinion. Why would I give someone else’s opinion”?

“You might quote an expert”.

I’m already an expert on my own opinion.  

          “Don’t’ you think an expert would know more than you”? 

          Sure. That’s why I get all my information from experts who agree with me, just as everyone else does.
Most of us try to get things right; that’s why we go to sources we believe to be reliable – in our opinion.  

          “So, you think everything is a matter of opinion - Nothing is either right or wrong but thinking makes it so”?

Yes, generally so, as your quote from Hamlet is wrong in precise Shakespearean wording, but right in general.  

          “I didn’t know that was from Shakespeare”?.  

          Most who quote the line don’t know it’s from Shakespeare. Quotes of wisdom often get misquoted. I do it myself in conversation. I look up exact wording if I’m writing.

“So you do think there is, right and wrong, true
and false”?

I do, if there is if there is documentable proof. 

          Proof is only possible in math and science. Two plus two consistently equals four. Energy consistently equals mass times the speed of light squared (E=mc2). Nothing in any other discipline equals that sort of verifiable truth.
Certainties in social theory and historical record are really opinions. Even the most probable of them cannot be truly verified. 

          Truth or falseness when verified by measurement
or demonstration is objectively correct. Everything else is subjective. Since opinions aren’t objective we must decide
for ourselves which opinions are more likely to be true.

“What about conclusions reached by experts”?

Expert conclusions are as subjective as any other opinions. Only measurable, demonstrable, evidence, is objective.
 
“I try to be objective”
         
Me, too. It’s not possible. We all have biases. We’re usually unaware of our biases. We imagine our opinions based on solid evidence and good sense. We imagine objectivity.
         Anything that can’t be measured or demonstrated
is subjective. That said, there are many subjective opinions that do make good sense - even if they can’t be proved. 

         The most useful good sense we call, common sense. Ironically, common sense isn’t all that common. Neither is it always sensible, but it is a sensible check on specious theory.  

          “That’s just your opinion”?
         

          That’s my opinion.








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