Of course, "strong opinions weakly held" is a refactoring of the scientific approach to knowledge. Karl Popper taught that scientific hypotheses necessarily must be disprovable. Hypotheses that aren't disprovable (falsifiable) are useless in science.
Insisting on falsifiable hypotheses is a difficult personal discipline, not to mention collective discipline. "Nothing is true unless it might be false!" Wait, what? How can a company make decisions based on that sort of epistemology? How can a government set policy? It's much easier to make decisions when we have the illusion we're sure about the facts.
Maybe the only sensible path is to hold all our opinions, personal and group, lightly.
Insisting on falsifiable hypotheses is a difficult personal discipline, not to mention collective discipline. "Nothing is true unless it might be false!" Wait, what? How can a company make decisions based on that sort of epistemology? How can a government set policy? It's much easier to make decisions when we have the illusion we're sure about the facts.
Maybe the only sensible path is to hold all our opinions, personal and group, lightly.