Team - Constructive Debates
https://liamrosen.com/arguments.html
Debate seen as pyramid with two sides
- Discussion surrounding facts
From unproductive to productive: 1.1) Social Shaming, example: “I can’t believe it’s 2020 and we’re still listening to white males on this issue”
1.2) Gotchas, example : “If you hate America so much, why don’t you just leave?“
1.3) Single Fact, example: “The UK has gun control, and the murder rate there is only a quarter of the USA’s”
1.4) Single Study
1.5) Good Faith Survey of Evidence
- Discussion on philosophical side of the debate
2.1) Isolated demands for rigor
“You can’t be an atheist if you can’t prove God doesn’t exist.”
2.2) Disputing Definitions
”Abortion is just state-sanctioned murder”
2.3) Clarifying
Example: “Are you opposed to laws saying that convicted felons can’t get guns? What about laws saying that there has to be a waiting period?”
2.4) Operationalizing
”If the US were to raise the national minimum wage to $15, the average poor person would be better off.”
And at the top level, joint
- High Level Generators of Disagreement
“Capital punishment might decrease crime, but I draw the line at intentionally killing people. I don’t want to live in a society that does that, no matter what its reasons.”
Most agreement we can achieve. Arguing this further gets difficult as these sorts of value judgments are often based on far-reaching cultural norms