Opinion
is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.
- Plato
Upon returning a book to my teacher I remarked that the author was quite opinionated. He smiled and I could tell that we were about to embark on yet another amazing adventure into the depths of what makes music (life) work. It seems that over time opinion has become a negative thing, specifically if it doesn't correspond with the masses. But having an opinion is an essential part of being an individual, and that is a positive thing. For a dictionary definition: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=opinion If you don't have an opinion, what do you have? Now, I'm not endorsing that we choose a cause and argue for it regardless of its merit, people like that are exhausting. But if there is something you believe or feel then express it! Obviously the author of the aforementioned book felt very passionately about how early music should interpreted. If he hadn't, would he have taken the time and energy to compile such a resource which I can't imagine brought him a handsome retirement fund? If Plato hadn't had opinions would we still be talking about and learning from him today? If artists didn't feel that somehow putting paint on canvas would express how they felt about something in a totally new and unique light what would be the point? And for me personally, if I don't have something to say through my music, is there any chance my audience will gain anything positive from the experience? I think not. To quote another wise man, my dad, "you can't start where you're not", so form an opinion and get moving. Where will the path lead?
posted by Linz Organist at 3:01 PM
11 Comments:
I agree, forming an opinion is important, but only if it is based on facts. Otherwise, somebody in a position to do so could come along and smack it down with vigor, then you'd be left back where you started. Research should always come before opinions.
I agree, to a point. However, not everything has to be based on fact. Someone would be hard-pressed to come up with a good fact to dispute my like for pink. And if no one had decided the earth was flat, would anyone else have decided to double check?
True about the pink.
But nobody really thought the world was flat, at least not by Columbus's time. Columbus thought the world was small enough that he could sail around it and reach the indies, whereas his detractors thought the world was too large for a voyage to make it all the way around. Columbus ended up being lucky that there was another set of continents in his way, otherwise he would have met his doom due to his error. The myth of the flat earth is largely propagated to erroneously and unfairly portray the middle ages as a time of intellectual suppression by the church.
http://www.bede.org.uk/flatearth.htm
And actually, thinking about it further, saying "I like pink" is stating a fact, not really an opinion. It's a verbal expression of the neuroaesthetic appeal of a certain wavelength of light in your mind. Now, saying "pink is better than blue" would be an opinion, but it would be an invalid opinion, not supportable by fact, as there is no way to measure the value of a wavelength of light.
So anyway, I stand by my thought that all opinion should be based on fact.
In saying that, I'm not saying it's impossible to have an opinion without facts. On the contrary, many people do just that. And then I (or anyone with any real knowledge in their head) come along and smack them down. Opinions supported by facts are infinitely more powerful than opinions supported by arbitrary whim.
And I'm not trying to attack you, or anybody else, for that matter. I'm just stating my opinion. ;)
How can me liking pink be a fact? Is there scientific evidence? It's just my word against someone else's. What if they have a better argument for me liking blue than I have for liking pink?
I've done some further self-education concerning the nature of "pink" as an entity, and now realize that there is no single wavelength of light that corresponds to pink, but it is a combination of different wavelengths. Still, what happens in a persons brain when they experience pink is the same.
Light enters the eye, is translated into the language of neurons via cells in the retina, and is transmitted to the occipital lobes for processing in the visual centers of the brain. The information is then split up and recombined in who-knows-how-many different ways for all of the knowledge that we need in dealing with our environment. Somewhere along the line, color information is processed by the emotional centers of the brain, including pleasure centers. Assuming you're not lying about liking pink, then when a combination of wavelengths of light corresponding to pink enters your eye, it eventually triggers the pleasure centers of your brain, which in turn tell you there is something nice about that color. This is a fact, and can be measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It will show your pleasure centers lighting up in response to viewing the color pink.
As to why you might like pink, there could be any number of experiences in your past that your brain has stored away, either consciously or subconsciously that have created an algorithm to tell you there's something nice about pink that should bring you pleasure.
Now, saying "pink is nice" is an opinion, but it's based on the presumed fact "I like pink." Therefore, it's a perfectly acceptable opinion in my frame of reference.
Well, enlightened fellow, I shall refrain from becoming one of those people who argues for the sheer pleasure. But you have raised some good points. I in no way meant to encourage people to create meaningless opinions. I think for a person of sound mind to have a strong opinion they will have thought things through before expressing it. Perhaps I was writing for people such as yourself who I know would not ignorantly state something.
:)
I'm not sure why I even cared to jump at this whole scenario so whole-heartedly.
I think it was less about opinions and more about random information that wanted to jump out of my head.
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