This is an important question to ask I thought I’d ask it because I was reading a poster and people were giving their opinions and emotional feelings about the thing but they weren’t really talking about the observable fact of the thing so I would like to know how does one be able to tell the difference between a human opinion / emotion and an observable fact ?
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You answered your own question already. If someone gives you their opinions or emotional reactions to something, then they are not contending with the facts, they are contending with themselves: how the facts make them feel.
There is nothing more to it than that. They are either contending with the facts or they are not.
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Solving factual problems gives emotional satisfaction, once you have gone through the grueling and alien process of assembling and measuring and calculating something that will make no sense until you have. It is delayed gratification.
It is possible to get that satisfaction immediately by producing a preassembled conclusion right away, and then fitting any facts to that conclusion, providing a continuous and immediate stream of emotional gratification (which, nevertheless, is less overall than the satisfaction of working it out based on facts).
Most people do the second thing, because nature doesn’t like to throw dice. The uncertainty of an unsolved problem is unbearable for most.
To answer the question, the way you can tell is: does the opinion instantly give you emotional reward, or is it something you don’t quite understand and don’t quite know what to make of? Something that you have no ready emotional space for?
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Do facts exist outside of human emotion and belief/want ?
It may also have to do with the fact that humans are both herbivore and carnivore, both predator and prey.
A predator is much more interested in actually descifering an unknown. Find target, figure out target, design plan, try plan, recalibrate, etc.
A herbivore is much more interested in an immediate, powerful emotional response to the unknown. Find target, eat. Find target, run the fuck away. Find target, fight. Find target, fuck. Etc.
Indiana Jones (as he takes a woman that just gave herself to him unconditionally): “I don’t like easy women!”
People percieve through their emotions.
You can have event X
From the emotional perspective of A it appears as X1.
From emotional perspective of B it appears as X2.
So on and so forth.
Often times, not always, it is best to observe what repeats across perspectives.
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They have to exist. Otherwise what are humans getting emotional about?
Its one thing that human perception of reality is subjective. We make different experiences in life and we also react differently.
However, subjectivity is not to be confused with randomness.
We look at the same thing and judge it differently from our standpoint. But we ARE looking at the same thing. If that were not the case, then there would be no connecting points.
In a world where “chair” cannot be told apart from “applesauce” you would have hard time with communicating anything.
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Excellent question, never mind other people- I struggle to be objective myself and all the time jump to interpretations of the events, especially when I am emotionally “activated”- I wrote to myself number of questions to ask myself, for example: What actually happened? What are observable facts? What story did I add? What am I trying to prove and why? etc… But, if I am emotionally triggered then it doesn’t really work, though it does work sometimes and it does help with “propaganda” and other people.
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An expressed opinion is ‘a thought’, an expressed internal feeling is ‘an emotion’, and an expressed observable fact, is ‘an observation of something’ that NO one could refute.
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Would you provide us with an example of a so-called ‘factual problem’ please?
Yes. …
This is a very good point.
When we ‘look at’ and ‘judge’ then this is from our standpoint, viewpoint, and/or advantage point. From where we stand ‘we’ understand things. From ‘our perspective’ view things. And, from where we stand and view things are what advantage point are we able to ‘look at’ and ‘see’ things exactly as they are, or from a narrowed or even closed field of view.
See, we can all ‘look at’ the exact same thing but are we ‘judging’ from the Truly open perspective, and advantage point, or from a somewhat closed and narrowed perspective. Are we on top ‘looking’ and ‘judging’ from the highest and best view and advantage point, or ‘looking’ and ‘judging’ from a lower level advantage and view point?
Only when we can ‘see’ from everyone’s perspective and view point, then, and only then, we can see the full and True big picture of things. In other words, only then we can determine and know the actual irrefutable Truth of things.
Factual observations, or accounts, can vary in many ways. For example, a motor vehicle accident can have two drivers, and five other witnesses, however seven different accounts or claimed ‘factual observations’ can be presented. An actual ‘factual observation’, however, would always start with something like, “From my perspective, …”, “From where I was standing/sitting, …”, or “From what I saw, …”. So, NO attempt to claim that what is to be presented is what actually happened but just a ‘factual statement’ about what ‘i personally saw and/or witnessed’ only.
Another example is even if seven human beings are observing or playing in a tennis match. The ball can ONLY ever land in one exact spot, but how far the ball lands in relation to a line can be claimed to be in seven different positions. Each person may claim the ball landed somewhere differently, which, to each of them, is what they ‘saw’ and ‘witnessed’, but the actual Truth is NO one knows for sure nor with absolute certainty WHERE the ball landed in relation to the line, but from WHERE each human beings was sitting or standing, the ball APPEARED to land where it did for each of them.
So, the actual and irrefutable Truth IS “From my perspective, …”, “From where I was standing/sitting, …”, or “What I saw was, …” is what is actual True, Accurate, and Correct.
And then, and only then, WHERE ALL ‘truth’ lies, is IN agreement and accpetance.
Why do people bother communicating anything at all why not just scrap language all together ?
you are doing it, so what is ‘your answer’?
Because it often works. For some things with great regularity.
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I’d say this is where the primacy of existence principle is indispensable. It tells us that there is a distinction between the subject of consciousness and the object, between what’s real and imaginary.
Using sounds instead of language.
So, to answer ‘your own question’ here, how to know the difference between an opinion/belief and a factual observation is done by using sounds instead of language.
Now that ‘that’ is answered, what other machine-type questions are you going to bring to this forum?
I think it would be good if we used non-verbal sounds more often. We often clutter up simpler emotional messages with a lot of words. And sometimes we make a river go through an opening that would suit a tiny brook, so we have to carry around this large unexpressed lake.
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