Chapter 1
What is Debate?

1.1. What is Debate?

Debate is a communication process in which participants argue for and against a given topic.  There are many kinds of debate.  Some people think of a business meeting. An employee proposes a new marketing plan but another opposes it.  You and your friend may have an informal debate.  You are talking about a plan for the coming long weekend.  You suggest a trip to a spa resort but your friend disagrees.

You can also debate by yourself.  You are trying to make a future plan.  Do I want to go to a graduate school or to find a job in a company?  You consider good points and bad points about those two future plans.

1.2. Why do we Debate?

There are many reasons why people debate.  The most important reason is to make a best possible decision about a plan.  How can we arrive at the best decision?  We want to hear a best possible defense of the plan and best possible attack against the plan before we decide.  If someone tries his best to find reasons for the plan and another tries her best to find reasons against the plan, we will be able to hear good information for our decision.  If they try to attack and defend each other's arguments, we will be able to hear better reasons for our decision.

Let me illustrate the point.  Suppose an electric power company proposes the construction of an atomic power plant in your town.  Some people in your town welcome the plan.  Others oppose it.  Still many others cannot decide their mind.  There will be a town meeting about the plan of the atomic power plant.

You are concerned about the safety of atomic power plants and want to speak up in the meeting.  You will start a preparation for the meeting.

You call the power company and asked for information.  You also find a group of people opposing atomic power plants in another area and asked for information.  You go to a library to find several books and articles in magazines discussing the safety of atomic power plants.  By carefully reading all that information, you may arrive at a conclusion that the atomic power plant in your town will be dangerous.

You will write up a short speech so that you can give it at the town meeting.  You will also study what your electric power company has to say about those safety questions so that you can criticize them as well as defend your opinion against possible criticism.

In the town meeting, you and some others give opinions against the construction of the atomic power plant in your neighborhood.  Some others present their opinions for the construction.  You exchange some questions and answers about your opinions.  You also criticize some of the points raised by the proponents of the construction.  They also attack your opinion.  There is some more exchange of opinions for and against atomic power plants.

In this illustration, debate is not only that town meeting but it includes the whole process of your consideration of the question of the safety of the plant, search for information, and preparation of your speech and possible attacks and defense.  At the end of this process, the audience is able to make a best possible decision.

1.3. Debate and Discussion

Many people are confused with debate and discussion.  Both are communication processes in which participants often talk about important questions.  In Japanese, both may be called tooron.  Strictly speaking, however, debate and discussion are different in several ways.

In debate, the topic is a specific question already decided beforehand.  In discussion, participants look for a solution to a problem.  For example, if you are concerned with a garbage disposal, you will have a discussion about a question: "What should we do to reduce garbage?"  One of you may suggest that the government should require manufacturers to use more recycled materials.  Then you can have a debate about the solution.  The question for debate is: "Should the government require manufacturers to use more recycled materials?"

Debate considers two choices but discussion may consider many choices.  In discussion about garbage disposal, different people will propose different solutions such as decreasing disposable products, recycling, using biodegradable products, proposing a new disposal site, etc.  Debate usually has only two choices: adopting or rejecting the proposal.

In terms of rules of speaking, debate usually has strict rules of the order and length of speaking: who speaks first, second, third, etc.; how many minutes they can speak.  Discussion is conducted more freely with less formal rules.

The purpose of communication is different in debate and discussion.  In debate, the participants insist on their own position and do not yield to the opponent.  The third party (audience or judge) often gives the decision after hearing the both sides.  The participants in discussion try to reach an agreement among themselves.

1.4. What is Academic Debate?

When you are using this textbook in class, you will have debate as educational exercise.  It is called academic or educational debate.  Academic debate is different from debate in the real world like the above debate in the town meeting.  In the real-world debate, the purpose is often to decide the future plan of the participants.  In the academic debate, it is not the case and the purpose is educational training.  Suppose we have a debate in this class whether we should build an atomic plant in our town.  Even if the decision is that we should build it, it won't decide the real future of our town.

There are several characteristics of academic debate for maximizing the educational benefit.  There are strict rules of speaking in terms of time, order, use of evidence, etc.  Judges often give criticism and advice of arguments both in contents and skills, as well as giving the decision.  Academic debate is offered as one of the speech courses colleges and high schools in the United States and some other countries, where students are taught how to debate.  It is also popular in extracurricular activities and there are local and national level competitions.  In Japan you also find some classes using debate and tournaments (contests) both in Japanese and English languages.

Debate has been used for a long time in Western societies since the time of Ancient Greek.  It is often used in classrooms and business training.  Many leaders in politics, business, and academics learned debate.  Many of the U.S. presidents and British prime ministers used to practice debate in schools and universities.  In Japan, debating in English has an established tradition in extracurricular clubs (mostly called English Speaking Societies).  More recently, the high school curriculum for English includes debate as one of the optional activities.  Debate in Japanese is also increasingly popular.

1.5. Ethics in Debate

Since debating skills are powerful tools in communication, we must also be concerned with ethical responsibility of those engage in debate.  The abuse of debating skills has been criticized as sophistry since the beginning of academic debate in Ancient Greece.  Recently in Japan, a spokesperson of a cult religion group attracted people's attention when he was called liar for his abuse of debating skills learned in college.  When you practice debate you should be aware of your ethical responsibility.  You must also learn to expose problems of "liars" when they try to erroneously defend unjustifiable positions.

Some people worry about the practice of debating both sides in academic debate when the same person or team defend one position in one debate and attack that position in another debate.  We must understand that academic debate is different from substantive debate in that students are debating for the sake of practice.  They can develop unbiased attitude by looking at both sides of the question.  Even in substantive debate, some speakers serve as devil's advocates so that the question can be rigorously tested.  So debaters who are arguing against their own belief are not unethical or irresponsible. In debate, speakers are playing a role of either supporting or denying one position.  After students debate both sides of the question, they will be able to broaden their view about the question and will be able to come up with a better-informed opinion of their own.

In academic debateIn academic debate, especially in competition like tournaments, we must be very careful about evidence.  In competition, quotations from books and articles are crucially important in defending one's position.  Debaters must be responsible for the accuracy of information given in debate.  If debates were to distort or fabricate evidence, they would be severely penalized.  The rule is that debaters must record sources of information and give them as much as possible in their speeches.  Debaters are also encouraged to question sources of information in their opponent's speeches.

Exercises

1. Have you ever participated or observed debate?  Describe it.  If you do not have such an experience, observe a debate on TV or visit the ESS (English Speaking Society) in your school.

2. What are similarities and differences of "tooron" and "debate" described in this textbook?

3. Do you think debate should be a required subject in schools and universities?  Why or why not?  What are benefits and problems of learning debate?

4. What do you think of arguing against your own belief in debate?  Do you feel it uncomfortable?

5. Your instructor may show a video of a debate.  What is the question being debated?  What are major arguments presented from the affirmative and negative sides?