Should we debate with the enemy?
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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.
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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
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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.
Pros
What are the pros of adversarial debate?
Cons
What are the cons of adversarial debate?
To go further
Bibliography
- Alain Brossat, Peut on parler avec l'ennemi ?, Noir et rouge, 2014.