TRUTH AND

OPINION
Philosophical method (or
philosophical methodology)
Is the study of how to do
Philosophy. A common view
among philosophers is that
Philosophy is distinguished by the
ways that philosophers follow in
addressing philosophical questions.
• Philosophy is concerned
with determining the
concept of truth. Truth
lies at the heart of any
inquiry.
Truth, in metaphysics and the
philosophy of language, is the
property of sentences, assertions,
beliefs, thoughts, propositions that
are said, in ordinary discourse, to
agree with the facts or to state
what the case is
• How do we know if something
is true?
There are several views
regarding truth. Philosophers
emphasize the importance of
belief as basis for determining
truth.
• Example, stating the very
obvious things we know about
ourselves.
• I am alive.
• I have a body.
• I can breathe
 Distinguishing Opinion from
Truth
• The ideas that we encounter in
everyday life can be considered as
truth or opinion. But what
distinguishes one from the other?.
• Fact is something that is true
and can be verified as such.
You can find facts in legal
records, scientific findings,
encyclopedias, atlases, etc. in
other words, facts are the
truth and are accepted as such
• Opinion is a statement that
holds the element of belief; it
tells how someone feels. In
other words it is what
someone believes or thinks,
and is not necessarily the
truth.
• An opinion is a statement of belief
which may or may not be backed up
by facts,
• but cannot be proven true or fals
• Is subjective
• Is created
• Interprets reality
• Cannot be verified
• Opinions are statements that go
beyond providing facts.
•  Conclusion is a judgment based
on certain facts.
•  Beliefs are statements that
express convictions that are not
easily and clearly explained by
facts
• Explanations are statements that
assume the claim to be true and
provide reasons why the
statement is true.
•  Arguments are a series of
statements that provide reasons
to convince the reader or listener
that a claim or opinion is truthful
• The difference between fact and
opinion on the following
grounds:
1. The fact is described as the
statement that can be verified or
proven to be true. Opinion is an
expression of judgment or belief
about something
• 2. Fact relies on observation or
research while opinion is based on
assumption.
• 3. The fact is an objective reality
whereas opinion is a subjective
statement.
• 4. Facts can be verified with the help
of evidence or statistics. On the
contrary, an opinion is not supported
by any evidence
• 5. Facts explain what actually happened.
Unlike an opinion, which represents a
perception about something.
• 6. One important feature of a fact is that
it is universal and does not differ from
person to person. As against this, every
human being has a different opinion on a
particular subject and so, it varies from
one person to another.
Arguments often take the form of
statements that are either claims of
facts and are phrased in such a way
that they seem reasonable.
However, a number of arguments
may be based on faulty reasoning.
These kinds of arguments are called
fallacies.
The following are examples of
fallacies.
FALLACY CHARACTERISTICS EXAMPLE
Ad hominem attacking the “of course he
person believes that
presenting the the
argument instead government is
of the argument flawed, he is a
itself. rebel and a
Communist!”
FALLACY CHARACTERISTIC EXAMPLE
S
Appeal to using the threat “if this peace
force of force or an agreement will
undesirable not be signed
event to by the
advance an government,
argument. then we will
have no
recourse but to
go to war.”
FALLACY CHARACTERIST EXAMPLE
ICS
Appeal using “All these
to emotions charges are
emotion such as pity baseless; this
or sympathy is just plain
harassment –
can’t you see
how this is
affecting my
family?”
FALLACY CHARACTERI EXAMPLE
STICS
Appeal the idea is “Every boy
to the presented your age
popular as already has
acceptable a girlfriend,
because a you should
lot of people go find one!”
accept it.
FALLACY CHARACTERISTIC EXAMPLE
S
Appeal to the idea is “Marriage
tradition acceptable should be
because it has between a man
been true for a and a woman. It
long time. has been so for
a long time in
this country; it
should remain
so today and in
the future.”