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I've always been troubled by this because it seems to excuse poor behaviour i.e. - "strong opinion" - the opinion is asserted aggressively and without tact -
by duncanawoods 9y ago
I've always been troubled by this because it seems to excuse poor behaviour i.e.
- "strong opinion" - the opinion is asserted aggressively and without tact
- "weakly held" - there is little justification for the opinion and it will be abandoned under pressure and on a whim
Sutton seems to want Strong to mean something about "attracting energy" as if Strong means "intentionally provocative" but it really isn't clear to me. I prefer "reasoned opinions presented thoughtfully" but then I'm British so... eh.
- dwaltrip 9y agoMy interpretation: "well-reasoned beliefs that are acted on strongly but easily discarded when appropriate". If a belief or idea isn't well-reasoned or doesn't have strong backing then it should be held weakly and also _not_ acted on (neither in the affirmative nor vice versa).
- kelnos 9y agoI think it's phrased that way to emphasize the -- perhaps unintuitive -- dichotomy, not to suggest that people be tactless or thoughtless. The way I (admittedly not British) read it is: - "strong opinion" - I've thought about this a lot and it seems reasonable and justifiable enough to base my actions on it. - "weakly held" - I recognize that I'm not a perfect being and can discard my opinions if I come across new, convincing evidence that contradicts them. The main difference I think is avoiding equating "strong" with "brutish" and "weak" with "pushover". I think when those terms are applied to people that's how we think of them, but they just mean very different things in an academic/intellectual context.
- marcosdumay 9y agoI get "strong opinion" to mean not settling for middle ground just because there's an opposition or some pressure. And weakly held to mean it should be abandoned if new evidence makes it wrong.