Noun

Singular opinion

Plural opinions

opinion (plural opinions)

1. A thought that a person has formed about a topic or issue.

   I would like to know your opinions on the new project.

   In my opinion, white chocolate is better than milk chocolate.

   Every man is a fool in some man's opinion.

   Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived. - Oscar Wilde

Derived terms

• advisory opinion
• be of the opinion
• concurring opinion
• have an opinion
• in my humble opinion/IMHO
• in my opinion
• in one's opinion
• opinion poll
• public opinion
• scientific opinion
• second opinion

Related terms

• opination
• opine
• opinionated

An opinion is a belief that may or may not be backed up with evidence, but which cannot be proved with that evidence. It is normally a subjective statement and may be the result of an emotion or an interpretation of facts; people may draw opposing opinions from the same facts.

There can be the public opinion, or other types of opinion.

In economics, philosophy, and other social sciences, analysis based on opinion is referred to as normative analysis (what ought to be), as opposed to positive analysis, which is based on scientific observation (what materially is or is experimentally demonstrable).

Historically, the distinction of demonstrated knowledge and opinion was articulated by Ancient Greek philosophers. Plato's analogy of the divided line is a well-known illustration of the distinction between knowledge and opinion. Opinions can be persuasive, but only the facts they are based on can be said to be true or false.

'Scientific opinions' are opinions formed via the scientific method, and so are necessarily evidence backed. A scientific opinion, representing the formally-agreed consensus of a scientific body or establishment, often takes the form of a published position paper citing the research producing the Scientific evidence upon which the opinion is based. 'The Scientific Opinion' can be compared to 'the public opinion' and means the complex collection of the opinions of many different scientific organizations and entities, and also the opinions of scientists undertaking scientific research in the relevant field.

A Legal opinion is an opinion of a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling.

Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views.

An opinion is a person's ideas and thoughts towards something. It is an assessment, judgment or evaluation of something.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
• 2 Attributed
• 3 Unsourced
• 4 External links

Sourced

• If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
  • John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

• The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
  • John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

• To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility. Its condemnation may be allowed to rest on this common argument, not the worse for being common.
  • John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

• I agree with no man's opinion. I have some of my own.
  • Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, ch. 12

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Wed Aug 12 12:04:37 2009