Issues of belief and non-belief are less common than we think.
A simple difference of opinion presupposes shared conceptualization (which at one point in my life I would have called “perspective”), that each differing opinion has been clarified in meaning and implications mapped, and, finally, that each opinion is actually about the same object (that is that it attempts to account for the same phenomena).
Perhaps a taxonomy of differences in thought might be helpful:
- Conclusional: have we arrived at the same belief? (Do we agree?)
- Logical: are our beliefs fully clarified, with all implications and doubts duly mapped out? (Are we clear?)
- Conceptual: are we conceptualizing the problem the same way and have we tried out alternative conceptualizations in order to compare them? (Are we aligned?)
- Phenomenal: are we working on the same problem, and are we responding to the same data? (Are we focused?)