[Scott Harris]

The problem with debaters, in my experience, is that when they face opposing ideas in a Socratic Seminar they often try to “kill it with fire!” A Socratic seminar is focused more on the ideas of dialogue than victory, knowing that the word argue comes from the Latin, meaning “to polish.” This is the point of civil dialogue — that we will polish off the rough edges of each others’ arguments, and will all be better for the process. The weak parts of our arguments are removed, and we adopt the shiny parts of our opponent’s argument of which we were formerly unaware.

[Author]

Posts