Truth and opinion
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, July 13, 2026
The ancient problem of the relationship between truth and opinion, already articulated at the origins of Western philosophy in Parmenides’ poem, takes on a new topicality today. It is indeed evident that the clear distinction between the two forms of knowledge, taken for granted by the ancients, is now completely cancelled out. There are only opinions, which claim to be true. It is all the more urgent to remember that truth and opinions set themselves on different paths. Truth — which the Greeks called aletheia, meaning unconcealedness, openness — concerns the being, i.e. the experience that something is, that there is something rather than nothing. Opinion (which the Greeks called — and which we still call so — doxa) concerns entities, the knowledge that things are one way rather than another. The former, says Parmenides, is still (atremes, literally not-trembling, fearless), circular and timeless; the latter can be correct or erroneous and is, therefore, changeable and uncertain.
It is crucial, however, to understand the relationship between these two forms of human knowledge. The first in no way guarantees the correctness of opinions, but it provides us with a place from which to consider them, from which we can ask ourselves whether they are right or wrong. Those who dwell solely on opinion will inevitably tend to consider it correct. While truth discloses the possibility of both true and erroneous opinion, opinion can only assert its own truth. Hence the apparent paradox, according to which truth defines itself through the possiblity of error, which opinion must exclude at any costs.
It is not surprising that a culture that has lost the difference between truth and opinion has produced artificial intelligence, i.e. a doxa that asserts its own truth without being able to gain experience from it. Where this doxa, which has closed itself off to the possibility of error, will lead the people who believe they can use it, is a question we should never cease to ask ourselves.
Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, July 13, 2026
The ancient problem of the relationship between truth and opinion, already articulated at the origins of Western philosophy in Parmenides’ poem, takes on a new topicality today. It is indeed evident that the clear distinction between the two forms of knowledge, taken for granted by the ancients, is now completely cancelled out. There are only opinions, which claim to be true. It is all the more urgent to remember that truth and opinions set themselves on different paths. Truth — which the Greeks called aletheia, meaning unconcealedness, openness — concerns the being, i.e. the experience that something is, that there is something rather than nothing. Opinion (which the Greeks called — and which we still call so — doxa) concerns entities, the knowledge that things are one way rather than another. The former, says Parmenides, is still (atremes, literally not-trembling, fearless), circular and timeless; the latter can be correct or erroneous and is, therefore, changeable and uncertain.
It is crucial, however, to understand the relationship between these two forms of human knowledge. The first in no way guarantees the correctness of opinions, but it provides us with a place from which to consider them, from which we can ask ourselves whether they are right or wrong. Those who dwell solely on opinion will inevitably tend to consider it correct. While truth discloses the possibility of both true and erroneous opinion, opinion can only assert its own truth. Hence the apparent paradox, according to which truth defines itself through the possiblity of error, which opinion must exclude at any costs.
It is not surprising that a culture that has lost the difference between truth and opinion has produced artificial intelligence, i.e. a doxa that asserts its own truth without being able to gain experience from it. Where this doxa, which has closed itself off to the possibility of error, will lead the people who believe they can use it, is a question we should never cease to ask ourselves.
(English translation by I, Robot)
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