Debating—Given that we are a community that wants to have a good understanding of different arguments and it is also useful to be persuasive, I think that it would be worthwhile seeing what we can learn from the debating community.
I think that it would be worthwhile seeing what we can learn from the debating community.
Consider the article Flowsheet Logic and Notecard Logic. I suspect most of the things we would learn would be antipatterns, but it’s still useful to have negative examples (especially when those examples are widespread).
By Oxford-style do you mean British parliamentary (BP). In BP a) people speak at a rate that can actually be understood b) debating is about arguments having an impact, not just maximising the number of arguments.
The debating community doesn’t have the goal of arguments being in touch with reality. The only thing that matters is whether a judge will accept the argument.
When it comes to thinking about whether a scientific paper makes an argument that’s likely robust, that’s quite different.
The skill of not being convinced by persuasive arguments that aren’t in touch with reality is valuable.
It is true that you need additional skills, but it doesn’t mean that debating isn’t a good community for developing the particular skills that I mentioned.
Debating—Given that we are a community that wants to have a good understanding of different arguments and it is also useful to be persuasive, I think that it would be worthwhile seeing what we can learn from the debating community.
Consider the article Flowsheet Logic and Notecard Logic. I suspect most of the things we would learn would be antipatterns, but it’s still useful to have negative examples (especially when those examples are widespread).
That’s American debating. American debating is weird.
Care to clarify the difference? Oxford-style debate isn’t any better in this regard. Is there some other form of debate that is?
By Oxford-style do you mean British parliamentary (BP). In BP a) people speak at a rate that can actually be understood b) debating is about arguments having an impact, not just maximising the number of arguments.
The debating community doesn’t have the goal of arguments being in touch with reality. The only thing that matters is whether a judge will accept the argument.
When it comes to thinking about whether a scientific paper makes an argument that’s likely robust, that’s quite different.
The skill of not being convinced by persuasive arguments that aren’t in touch with reality is valuable.
It is true that you need additional skills, but it doesn’t mean that debating isn’t a good community for developing the particular skills that I mentioned.