In his argument for the importance of the opinion, Mill brings up the fact that as time moves forward, opinions are constantly proved wrong and rejected by the future. He points out that each age in history has had what was once thought to be certain knowledge disproven by the following ages, claiming that “every age having held many subsequent ages have deemed not only false but absurd; and it is as certain that many opinions, now general, will be rejected by future ages…” (page 25). With the movement of time, there will always be new knowledge to uncover, but whether or not Mill’s argument will still be valid is questionable. As time progresses, will human knowledge reach a certain point of perfection so that past opinions can never again be disproven?
Making the Modern World: Europe in the 19th Century
Liberalism and socialism and imperialism, oh my!
I do not believe that human knowledge can reach a certain point of perfection so that past opinions can never be disproven because an opinion is not generally something that can be proven or disproven. Every individual will have different preferences and interests which are opinions. The only way an individual could agree on the same opinions would be if they were suppressed by a tyrannical leader or leaders from expressing their differences. Regardless of suppression, individuals would still have differing opinions that they would be unable to express.