Hameno

difference of opinion versus difference in facts

I always did better in school at math and the hard sciences rather than arts and social sciences. I like being able to say “this is the way it is”. I am a librarian and enjoy being able to point at something and say “it says here that this is true”.

I do not enjoy, however, getting into arguments with people about purely subjective matters. For example, Art. I enjoy going to Art museums, I like looking at pretty things, and I like symbolic things that make me think. However, I tend to draw the line when art for art’s sake gets out of control. People who are passionate about Art-with-a-capital-A tend to think I’m weird or something if I’m not quite as passionate about Art as they are. I think this is a subjective opinion, and I’m not interested in being convinced that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Artistic buildings are something to admire. It is not a fact that everyone should admire Art. Someone might disagree with my opinion, but I am not wrong - it’s just an opinion.

I do, however, think that there are generally accepted facts in about Art. For example, Frank Lloyd Wright influenced a lot of architects with his ideas. Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by Louis Sullivan. If one is studying architecture, one should spend time studying FLW’s buildings. These border on opinion, but if someone tried to disagree with these things, I would think that they were simply wrong.

I think that I like Math so much because of the safety of proofs. Certainly, if you tell me that 2 plus 2 was 5 - this is wrong, and it can be proven. There is no room for a difference of opinion here.