Should we debate with the enemy?

PROS

It's important to try and convince your opponents, even the worst ones.

Debating with the enemy is the best way to fight his ideas

Debating with the enemy allows us to progress

Debating with one's enemies is an ethical obligation, the opposite of discrimination.

Debating with the enemy helps prevent violence

One must debate with one's enemies under appropriate conditions

To counter the enemy, you have to know him

To refuse to debate the enemy is to wallow in entrenchment and dogma.

CONS

To debate with the enemy is to recognize the legitimacy of his arguments.

To debate with the enemy is to participate in the dissemination of his ideas.

Debating with the enemy leads nowhere

You can debate with your opponents, but not with your enemies

There are better ways to fight your enemies

Some debates are humiliating, even dehumanizing for the people they target

Keywords: Debate, Enemy.

Warnings

This article aims to present all the pros and cons of the debate “Should we debate with the enemy?”, to help everyone form a critical, informed opinion.

Learn more: Founding Principles

This debate is under construction. Arguments are missing or not written. The introduction and bibliography need improvement.

Feel free to complete them.

To understand the debate

Argument families

On the one hand, advocates of a debate with the enemy believe that it is healthy to confront arguments that don't go our way, in order to improve the quality of our own arguments and objectivity. They also believe that it is harmful to leave a dangerous ideology unchallenged, and that the undecided can always be convinced. Detractors, on the other hand, believe that such debates are doomed to failure and give visibility to opposing views.

No links to a Wikipedia page have been provided yet.

Pros

What are the pros of ?

• It's important to try and convince your opponents, even the worst ones.
• Debating with the enemy is the best way to fight his ideas
• Debating with the enemy allows us to progress
• Debating with one's enemies is an ethical obligation, the opposite of discrimination.
• Debating with the enemy helps prevent violence
• One must debate with one's enemies under appropriate conditions
• To counter the enemy, you have to know him
• To refuse to debate the enemy is to wallow in entrenchment and dogma.

Cons

What are the cons of ?

• To debate with the enemy is to recognize the legitimacy of his arguments.
• To debate with the enemy is to participate in the dissemination of his ideas.
• Debating with the enemy leads nowhere
• You can debate with your opponents, but not with your enemies
• There are better ways to fight your enemies
• Some debates are humiliating, even dehumanizing for the people they target

Further reading

Bibliography

“Pro” side

No references have been entered yet.

“Con” side

• Alain Brossat, Peut on parler avec l'ennemi ?, Noir et rouge, 2014

Neither “pro” nor “con”

No references have been entered yet.

Webliography

“Pro” side

No references have been entered yet.

“Con” side

No references have been entered yet.

Neither “pro” nor “con”

No references have been entered yet.

Videography

“Pro” side

No references have been entered yet.

“Con” side

No references have been entered yet.

Neither “pro” nor “con”

No references have been entered yet.