Some Opinions are Wrong

     I recently asked several people whether opinions could be wrong.  I received several responses that I have placed in the following forms: no opinions are wrong, some opinions are wrong, and opinions are neither wrong nor not wrong.  For the sake of symmetry and continuity, I will also observe the assertion that all opinions are wrong.  The terms “not wrong” and “right” have the same meaning.  In most cases I use “not wrong” but this causes some confusion when observing the claim that some opinions are wrong, so you will find that I use both.  By, “not wrong” I mean the same thing as, “right” and by, “no opinions are wrong” I mean the same thing as, “all opinions are right.”  I will show that some opinions are wrong.

     First, let us examine the claim that all opinions are wrong.  If all opinions are wrong, and I am of the opinion that all opinions are wrong, then my opinion will be wrong; thus, not all opinions are wrong.  This is contrary to our initial statement that all opinions are wrong, so we can discard the proposition that all opinions are wrong.

     Next, we shall observe the postulate that no opinions are wrong.  If no opinions are wrong, and I am of the opinion that all opinions are wrong, then my opinion will be not wrong; thus, all opinions are wrong.  This is contrary to our initial statement that no opinions are wrong, so we can discard the proposition that no opinions are wrong.

     Now, we will contemplate the argument that some opinions are wrong.  If some opinions are wrong and I am of the opinion that no opinions are wrong, then I may be either right or wrong.  If my opinion is right, then no opinions will be wrong, which is contradictory to the initial statement that some opinions are wrong.  If I am wrong that no opinions are wrong, we can conclude that some opinions are wrong, which is equal to our initial statement that some opinions are wrong.  Let us look further.  If some opinions are wrong and I am of the opinion that all opinions are wrong, then I may be either right or wrong.  If I am right, then all opinions must be wrong, which is in agreement with the claim that some opinions are wrong; however, if all opinions are wrong, then my opinion cannot be right.  If I am wrong, then some opinions are not wrong.  This and our initial statement that some opinions are wrong are subcontraries, meaning they may both be true, only one may be true, but they may not both be false.  Therefore, some opinions are wrong, some opinions are not wrong, or some opinions are wrong and some opinions are not wrong; each of these statements agrees with the argument that some opinions are wrong.  It is relevant to point out that in this scenario we see the case of subalternates with false particulars; that is, in the case that some opinions are wrong or some opinions are not wrong, we cannot conclude that all opinions are wrong or no opinions are wrong, based on our previous conclusions.

     The argument that some opinions are wrong appears to be the only argument that allows for truth.  We can ignore the argument that all opinions are neither wrong nor not wrong because if it is true that some opinions are wrong, this claim will be wrong by definition of the subcontraries “some opinions are wrong” and “some opinions are not wrong.”  Some may be quick to claim that all opinions are relative, but if there is any truth to this world that exists outside of our minds, then some opinions must be wrong.