What's the difference between ideas and opinions?

Unfortunately people had replied this question without taking advantage of the Philosophy history so far. In spite of many possibilities to answer it, I'll do this profiting from Greek Philosophy. Being more specific: Plato and Socrates. The basic opposition, in Greek terms, is between doxa (opinion) and episteme (knowledge). read more

Doubling back: As to opinions vs. ideas, this can get very deep into the weeds, but I’m going to cut through them this way: My sense is that most scientists will lump them together, so at best ideas are very raw speculations. read more

The world turns on the power of ideas, and yet the social media world seems very often to revolve around shallow opinions. Apps like Facebook, Twitter, and others encourage a 24/7 barrage of opinions on every subject imaginable. read more

Ideas can help make sense of happenings in the world around us. They put apparent chaos into meaningful order. Opinions only tell us how a particular person (or group) evaluates those events. But ideas also create; they're generative. They can go beyond the present to future possibilities. Opinions cannot. Secondly, opinions and ideas differ in form. The form of an idea is usually a concept. An opinion is a valuation. read more