The Fact-Opinion Dichotomy
Prevalent, Useless and Troublesome
As kids, most of us were taught that facts and opinions are opposed to each other. The fact-opinion dichotomy extends into media literacy and is taken for granted as a crucial distinction for appropriately evaluating information communicated through media. An article in journalism.org, for example, defines factual statements as claims that are “capable of being proved or disproved by objective evidence” and an opinion as reflecting “the beliefs and values of whoever expressed it”. A fact is generally defined as something that is true and can be tested, whereas opinions are what someone thinks, feels, or believes.
Unfortunately, the fact-opinion dichotomy is prevalent, yet useless and troublesome.
The definition of ‘opinion’ implicit in the fact-opinion dichotomy is problematic. Furthermore, the fact-opinion dichotomy that we take for granted is not only useless but damaging to how we think about morality and value. It cultivates a naïve, relativistic attitude about value that risks replacing the search for moral justification with either a brute desire to alter power dynamics in one’s favor or apathy regarding right and wrong. This is why I think we should dispense with the fact-opinion dichotomy.
