How do you know?

Question

How often in an argument does someone confidently and undoubtedly state their opinion, passing it off as an indisputable fact? Almost always!
And then a simple question arises:

How do you know?

We have to constantly ask this question to ourselves and to the people around us. Its strength is in directness and openness. There is no condemnation in this question, it is only an expression of doubt and interest, it should not make you want to defend yourself.
So it turns out that most often behind a strong statement that is presented as a fact, there is only one's own opinion, which is formed by life experience or stereotyped patterns of thinking. And if you ask a person how they know what they are so confident about, it may happen that this person simply has nothing to answer.

So, if you are 100% sure of something or stubbornly state something, just stop and ask yourself — how do you know?

Accepted Answer

Thanks for the interesting idea! Never thought about it in that context.

Yuliia Voloshynova · Answer

The deepest wisdom comes from that. 👏

Spartak Polishchuk · Answer

@eonpilot of course) But in some cases it would be an interesting question even for yourself "how do I know?" or at least "why do I think so?", "where does my opinion came from?". Making own opinion mostly relays to something you already know. So those question are good to ask yourself sometimes and make sure you are spot on)

Dmytro Suslov · Answer

@just_spartak You can't even say it )

André J · Answer

IMO You could always prefix or suffix with IMO 😬

Dmytro Suslov · Answer

@yuliiavoloshynova Yes, it is )))))))))

André J · Answer

@just_spartak point is. Your entitled to your opinon. Try it out. If you have enough feedback loops it wont stand the test of time anyway. And you change your POV.

How do you know?

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