Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero [21]
This ability has two sides, however, it can either lift us to wisdom or topple us to absurdity. Here are three helpful tips to ensure that your opinions will be sound:
Base your opinions on careful observation rather than on habit or impulse. In particular, use your critical thinking skills in forming them.
From time to time, reexamine old opinions in the light of new knowledge. If you find that an opinion is no longer reasonable, modify it accordingly.
Do not mistake familiarity for soundness. Once you've formed an opinion, it's bound to seem solid to you – the very act of forming it shapes it to your outlook. The test to apply is not how comfortable you feel having the opinion but how well it fits the reality it is supposed to represent.
APPLICATIONS
Read the following dialogue carefully. Then decide whether anything said violates the ideas in the chapter. Identify any erroneous notions and explain in your own words how they are in error:
Fred: There was this discussion in class today that really bugged me.
Art: Yeah? What was it about?
Fred: Teenage sex. The question was whether having sex whenever we please with whomever we please is harmful to teenagers. Some people said yes. Others said it depends on the circumstances.
Art: What did you day?
Fred: I said it doesn't do any harm to anybody, that parents use that story to scare us. Then the teacher asked me what evidence I had to back up my idea.
Art: What did you tell him?
Fred: I said I didn't need any evidence because it's my opinion. Sex is a personal matter, I said, and I've got a right to think anything I want about it. My opinions are as good as anybody else's.
Think of an instance in which you or someone you know formed an opinion that later proved incorrect. State the opinion and explain in what way it was incorrect.
Each of the following issues is controversial – that is, it tends to excite strong disagreement among people. State and support your opinion about each issue, applying what you learned in this chapter.
In divorce cases, what guidelines should the courts use in deciding which parent gets custody of the children?
Until what age should children be spanked (if indeed they should be spanked at all)?
Should the minimum drinking age be sixteen in all states?
In what situation, if any, should the United States make the first strike with nuclear weapons?
Do evil spirits exist? If so, can they influence people's actions?
Does the end ever justify the means?
A high school junior invited his thirty-five-year-old neighbor, the mother of four children, to his prom. The woman was married and her husband approved of the date. However, the school board ruled that the boy would be denied admission to the dance if he took her.13 What your opinion of the board's decision?
Group discussion exercise: Read the following dialogue carefully. Then discuss it with two or three of your classmates. Determine which opinion of the issue is more reasonable. Be sure to base your decision on evidence rather than mere preference.
Background Note: A Rochester, New York Lawyer has issued a court challenge to the practice of charging women half-price for drinks during "ladies' nights" at bars. He argues that the practice is a form of ex discrimination against men.14
Henrietta: That lawyer must be making a joke against feminism. He can't be serious.
Burt: Why not? It's clearly a case of discrimination.
Henrietta: Look, we both know why ladies' nights are scheduled in bars: as a gimmick to attract customers. The women flock to the bars to get cheap drinks, and the men flock there because the women are there. It's no different from other gimmicks, such as mud-wrestling contests and "two for the price of one" cocktail hours.
Burt: Sorry, Hank. It's very different from two-for-one cocktail hours, where a person of either