Doxa and Episteme: A Lesson in Holding a Sound Belief
Many valuable lessons can be learned from distinguishing between doxa and episteme.
Doxa may refer to common belief and popular opinion, whereas episteme is interpreted as more of a justified, true belief. Doxa, as a belief by a person about something, can be said to be a partial point of view. In contrast, episteme, being a justified belief, may represent a holistic point of view. Indeed, obtaining episteme or true knowledge demands a holistic view of things, and this is one of the goals of Philosophy.
Doxa vs episteme
The Greek word episteme is normally translated as true knowledge. The Ancient philosopher Aristotle considers it as one of the five virtues of thought. Epistemeis also translated as ‘scientific knowledge,’ though not in the way the term ‘scientific’ is understood today, but as denoting ‘certainty’. Aristotle holds that certain knowledge or certainty is established by demonstration. True knowledge for him, therefore, is demonstrable or can be proved and verified.
Doxa, on the other hand, chiefly means belief; the belief held by a person (or a certain group of people) about a certain matter. Having dokein (seeming) as its root word, doxa expresses how something appears to someone. An event E, for instance, appears to person P. When based on that appearance, P issues judgment (doxazein) that E is so and so, he (p) creates a doxa. Hence, the term doxa is also understood as opinion.
True proposition vs. opinion
A true proposition or statement of fact possesses objective content and is well-supported by the available evidence. A statement of opinion, on the other hand, is one whose content is either subjective or not well supported by the available evidence.
A statement of fact is that which is true and can be verified or proved objectively. No matter what, a fact is true and correct. In philosophy, the phrase “state of affairs” (German: Sachverhalt), also known as a situation, is a manner the actual world must be in order to make a given proposition about the actual world true. A state of affairs (situation) is a “truth-maker,” while a (true) proposition is a “truth-bearer.”
On the other hand, an opinion is a statement that holds a touch of belief, usually telling how a person feels. Opinions are not always true and some cannot be proven. Nonetheless, though some opinions can only be emotional outbursts or merely interpretations, some opinions are more thoughtful, more informed, more coherent, and more important than others.
For meaningful conversation, people should thus focus on offering good reasons for the claims (opinions or otherwise) they make – reasons that may compel others to share their views. In other words, if one has an opinion, he should not merely say so—he should say why.
Opinion vs truth
Synonymous with reality and fact, truth (or true) pertains to anything that actually exists; anything that is done or happened; and any statement that is not false. Opinion is a statement that indicates a sentiment, conception, belief, or view. The following are examples of facts and opinions:
Fact:
Dogs have tail.
The Beatles was a band.
June 12 is Philippine’s Independence Day.
Opinion:
Dog’s tail is pretty.
The Beatles sang boring songs.
June 12 is the best day of the year.
Admittedly, truth is not a concept that one can comfortably define, especially in Philosophy. But just for the urgency to distinguish it from opinion, Filipino Philosophy author Jensen DG. Mañebog contends that it is not wrong to say that “a statement is true if what it asserts matches what is observed in reality.” He gives as an example the statement “All gold are metal” and explains that it is deemed true on the ground that in reality, gold are seen to possess the qualities of what we call metal (not that of stone or anything else). Truth, he concludes, can be said to be referring to the certitude or correctness of statement in relation to reality (Mañebog, 2013).
Opinion (or doxa), on the other hand, may refer to common thoughts that may be shaky in some areas, but has enough following. An example would be “People with bad hygiene are unattractive.” There may be no scientific studies that attribute people’s perceived attractiveness to smelling good, but there seems to be a point in claiming that those who smell bad are not really attractive.
Like being attractive, smelling good can also be subjective or relative as people do not all like the same type of smells. Thus, opinion or doxa can be said to be culturally contingent. As it changes from culture to culture (or person to person), it excludes some part of a general audience.
In contrast, truth (or episteme) deals with less relative and less subjective views and reflects objective observations. Statements that have been long written in the Bible which were later confirmed by science (e.g. that the earth is round or spherical) are good examples of episteme or truth as they are observational, empirical, and provable.
ALSO CHECK OUT:
Reasoning and Debate: A Handbook and a Textbook by Jensen DG. Mañebog
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