Comments on: How to win academic debates

By: Venkat

Venkat — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:28:37 +0000

Interesting, you’ve gotten me thinking about that piece nearly 2 years after I first wrote it. Some of my opinions have changed, and I think I’ve expanded my tactical vocabulary, but clearly there is a whole lot more used in different contexts that I am unfamiliar with.

Might do a sequel based on some thoughts triggered by the comments here someday.

By: Parand

Parand — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:40:06 +0000

A friend of mine who studied philosophy at Oxford has such a beautiful style of debate sometimes I argue with him just to hear him put it to use. A couple of things he does, in-line with your points above:

- Agree with your opponent, improve on his argument, and then … point out the flaw. It’s deflating when someone makes your argument for you better than you can, then punches a big hole in it.

- Reframe the argument to fit a well known form. This is sort of like proving NP completeness – if you can frame the argument such that it inexorably resembles another argument that has a clear answer, you can win.

Another that I like, if the point is just to win: make the opponent irrelevant to the overall argument – make it such that his opinion is cornered or unimportant, and gets ignored. This is rarely a good path in the long term, but for a quick win it can work.

By: Cyril

Cyril — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:15:23 +0000

Can’t you kids in Academia just play nicely without fighting?

By: Brittany Emch

Brittany Emch — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:12:00 +0000

Though I may not fit into the demographic of being a colleague who needs tips on ‘winning academic debates,’ this is a very practical and useful article for someone, like me, who is a student. At universities there is plenty of controversy to stem debates out of, whether inside the classroom or on the forefront of change within the school. Thank you for these helpful tips!

By: Kevembuangga

Kevembuangga — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:32:39 +0000

If the point is mainly to “win” you can use this.

By: Marc Couture

Marc Couture — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:04:23 +0000

As a colleague of Daniel’s (and I certify that I didn’t get my tenure by cheating, while hoping it wasn’t pure luck , I would like to suggest one more technique.

5. Make sure that a couple of your colleagues will support you. Under normal conditions, you should be able to count on those who trust you or share your frame of mind, but if you suspect things are going to get really serious or important, you should ask them explicitly before the meeting.

I speak from experience here: you can feel very uncomfortable (not to mention powerless) when you realize that nobody else supports your point, even if you’ve applied the four techniques suggested by Daniel.