Ask Jim about Debate
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Breaking Down Barriers: Ask Jim about Debate |
You can submit questions too, just email Jim at hansonjb@whitman.edu
Critiques are sometimes chastized
as bad advocacy. Indeed, I have not been their biggest fan. Yet,
there are arguments that support their use in debates.
First, they provide a way to
express arguments that should not be weighed like a disadvantage
and an advantage. Sometimes, a principle is so important that,
regardless of the advantage of a particular policy, it should
take precedence over other issues. For example, if a debater
attacks and swears at his or her opponent, the debate process may
be so damaged that the judge should vote against that debater
even if his/her policy advocacy is advantageous. In a more
typical example, if a debater advocates that we force all
immigrants to know English or be thrown out of the country, a
critique that this is xenophobic (based on unfair treatment of
immigrant) and that regardless of the advantages of the plan,
this xenophobia should not be accepted.
Second, they provide a way to point
out serious inequity. Critiques can identify sexism, racism,
homophobia, classism, statism, etc., in arguments. The result is
that debaters learn to think about the assumptions of their
arguments and whether those assumptions are justified.
Third, critiques give the negative
a better chance. Too many affirmatives win debates because it is
easy to present a small case that does not link to any
disadvantages. A critique allows the negative a chance to attack
the affirmative at a different angle and thereby evens the
playing field between affirmative and negative teams.
Fourth, the use of critiques introduces new theories that would not be discussed otherwise. Critiques include the externalization critique based on Heidigger's view that the use of technology separates humans from nature; critical race critiques where we challenge racial consequences of policies that often go unnoticed; deep ecology critiques that reject the use of nature for human consumption; and more.
Thanks to Jason
Regnier and Matthew Ho Puck for this question.