I think there are two parts to being good at philosophy: argumentative skill and cached knowldge.
Cached knowledge is knowing a given topic, the arguments around it and so on. Without cached knowledge you can’t engage in a real discussion because you have to reinvent the wheel while other people are discussion the best design for a car. Getting cached knowledge is largely a matter of reading existing work and discussion with people who know the field
Argumentation is being able to argue well. This means spotting flaws in arguments, being able to distinguish between an argument being true and being important, finding the cruxe(s) of a discussion and so on. This is hard to learn and is more a skill. The best way to learn it in my experience is lots and lots of practice with short feedback cycles and direct, clear feedback. Competitive debating can help. So can the standard route of writing lots of papers and having someone who is good mark them and rip them apart when/where they’re unpersuasive/unclear/imprecise.
I’m worried that competitive debating and argumentation could lead to developing some negative habits.
The ability to adopt a scout mindset, listen to and process opposing views, be receptive to criticism, engage in counterfactual thinking effectively, know how to handle thought experiments, employ intuition and other tools characteristic to philosophy judiciously, be able to switch between level of complexity in speech for different audiences (e.g. avoiding technical jargon with non-specialists, using examples that resonate with the audience, etc.) are all skills that can operate well both within and outside an argumentative context.
While being good at arguing may be the most central skill to cultivate, the specifics are going to matter!
Hard agree with the potential negative effects. Debating is essentially learning to be good at motivated reasoning. That can be very good if you choose to apply said motivated reasoning skill to deeply understand all positions on a topic, even those you disagree with. It’s usually bad because most people just use their superior motivated reasoning skills to engage in confirmation bias more effectivley.
I think there are two parts to being good at philosophy: argumentative skill and cached knowldge.
Cached knowledge is knowing a given topic, the arguments around it and so on. Without cached knowledge you can’t engage in a real discussion because you have to reinvent the wheel while other people are discussion the best design for a car. Getting cached knowledge is largely a matter of reading existing work and discussion with people who know the field
Argumentation is being able to argue well. This means spotting flaws in arguments, being able to distinguish between an argument being true and being important, finding the cruxe(s) of a discussion and so on. This is hard to learn and is more a skill. The best way to learn it in my experience is lots and lots of practice with short feedback cycles and direct, clear feedback. Competitive debating can help. So can the standard route of writing lots of papers and having someone who is good mark them and rip them apart when/where they’re unpersuasive/unclear/imprecise.
I’m worried that competitive debating and argumentation could lead to developing some negative habits.
The ability to adopt a scout mindset, listen to and process opposing views, be receptive to criticism, engage in counterfactual thinking effectively, know how to handle thought experiments, employ intuition and other tools characteristic to philosophy judiciously, be able to switch between level of complexity in speech for different audiences (e.g. avoiding technical jargon with non-specialists, using examples that resonate with the audience, etc.) are all skills that can operate well both within and outside an argumentative context.
While being good at arguing may be the most central skill to cultivate, the specifics are going to matter!
Hard agree with the potential negative effects. Debating is essentially learning to be good at motivated reasoning. That can be very good if you choose to apply said motivated reasoning skill to deeply understand all positions on a topic, even those you disagree with. It’s usually bad because most people just use their superior motivated reasoning skills to engage in confirmation bias more effectivley.