Thread: Me vs You.

Can't say really. Appealing to the people is a fallacy and one should always go on the evidence. That is not really what you were asking though...

To find an average on who would be right, one would need to be clear on the subject. In the case of aesthetics and "beliefs", or what music is "best", appealing to the people would be a grave mistake indeed, as is so often demonstrated.

None of these answers accurately reflect the truth.

"I am right and you are always wrong if you think otherwise. Others opinions have no impact."

If the speaker is talking about an objectively verifiable fact which he his completely correct about, then this is an accurate statement. In practice no one with a shed of intellectual honesty would say this because they would recognize that having total knowledge about anything is pretty much humanly impossible. Not only that, we can never be completely certain that the complete knowledge we have is totally accurate. To claim that others will always be wrong if they disagree with you is arrogant, to say the least.

"I'm right BECAUSE everyone else thinks the same as me."

"I'm right unless everyone else thinks otherwise."

"I am usually wrong, unless everyone else things otherwise."

"You are right because the rest of the world says so."

These are all examples of appealing to popularity, which is a fallacy. How widely held an idea is has no relevance to its truth.

"I'm right because the intelectual groups (who I/the world have deffined) say so."

"You are right because of the intellectual group you support"

These are both examples of appealing to authority, which is a fallacy. How widely held an idea is among a group of people, even "experts", has no relevance to its truth.

"You are right even if the world says otherwise."

This may be accurate. This particular option doesn't present a reason for the conclusion, so it can't be argued for or against.

You are right because ... your you.

Everyone is themselves. Not only is it a redundant statement, there's just no logic here. Non-sequitur.

Impossable to say. On average ... it goes 50/50

No it doesn't. There's no chance involved in whether you're correct or not. It isn't determined randomly. Especially considering it is possible to be partially correct, this response makes no sense.


In short, no, the rest of the Earth's opinion is of no consequence.

You can be very confident in want you have considered and believe. This does not ever mean that you should not open your mind to others perspectives.

The answer is that I am always right and you are always wrong because this piece of paper here says so.

Oh wait, what are my religious beliefs again? Sorry, got a bit confused there. :\

Anyway, I suppose it's heavily based on the context. When ideas are first developed then the whole of the world population apart from the person who has the idea is against them, but it doesn't make a difference.

Your poll is missing the option "I am right because my opinion is rational", so I couldn't vote.

I am usually right, but I am wrong every now ant then. And I'm always open to opinions always. I even let scientologists state their claim (note the lack of a capitolization ).

I agree with Mark. No right answer to this poll.

Originally Posted by Keeper

Consider:

Something makes sense to me, and something else makes sense to you. We both have our reasons for believing our respective 'thing', though the other person does not think some of those 'facts' or so forth.

Now, who is right? Also, what if we are not the only people in the world to hold these different opinions. For one of us, there is a clear majority of the world in agreement (lets say 99.99995%) and for the other their is an extremely small following of our 'thing' (.00005%). Does this make a difference?

[edit] The 'I' in the poll refers to YOU, the 'you' means anyone else.

I base my assertions on facts. If my methods are found to be fallacious, I may consider revising them.

I hate all options. Why must I either be right or wrong?

No answer here that suits me. No mention of evidence or logic or reason, just other people.

Bad way of thinking.

Agreed, what about poll option: "I'm not necessarily right but thus far my research and experience has lead me to these conclusions"

Originally Posted by Omnius Deus

Agreed, what about poll option: "I'm not necessarily right but thus far my research and experience has lead me to these conclusions"

That is exactly how it is, only many people don't see it that way. Being a scientist does not make you infallible, it only means that you probably learned a lot about various topics. You can study the behavior of fluids for 5 years at a university and be a very successful scientist. But everything you think is right, are just your personal conclusions based on your research and experience thus far. There is always the possibility that you are wrong.