www/philosophy devils-advocate.html

[Ineiev]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Ineiev <ineiev> 17/10/11 10:50:28

Added files:
        philosophy     : devils-advocate.html 

Log message:
        New article RT #1245188.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/devils-advocate.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1

Patches:
Index: devils-advocate.html
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RCS file: devils-advocate.html
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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<title>Devil's Advocate
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Why the Devil's Advocate Doesn't Help Reach the Truth</h2>
+
+<p>by Richard Stallman</p>
+
+<p>Playing the devil's advocate means challenging a position by saying
+what a hypothetical adversary would say.  I encounter this frequently
+in interviews and question periods, and many people believe that this
+is a good way to put a controversial position to the test.  What it
+really does is put the controversial position at a disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p>There is an indirect way of playing the devil's advocate: to say,
+&ldquo;If I defended your position, how should I respond if someone said
+XYZ?&rdquo;  This is less unfriendly than the ordinary devil's advocate,
+who would simply say XYZ, but has the same effect.</p>
+
+<p>Cunning adversaries try intentionally to obstruct thoughtful
+consideration of a position they oppose.  My cunning and unscrupulous
+adversary (the &ldquo;devil,&rdquo; let us say) would not want my views
+to get a proper hearing, especially if the devil thinks they are valid
+and people might agree with them.  The best way to prevent that is to
+block me from making them understood.</p>
+
+<p>The devil achieves that by twisting my words: presenting a misleading
+context in which my words appear to mean something other than what I
+intended.  If this succeeds, it will confuse the audience and distract
+it from the issue, in effect preventing it from being properly raised.
+If this makes my words appear to mean something that the audience will
+condemn, and which nobody present is really in favor of, I may need a
+long explanation to get back on track.  There may not be time for
+this, or the audience might lose focus.</p>
+
+<p>If I succeed in overcoming the first misunderstanding, the cunning
+adversary would spring another, and another.  If the adversary is
+better at verbal fencing than I am, I might never get my point across.
+If the stress makes me heated and I have trouble speaking clearly, the
+adversary will count that a success.  It matters little to the devil
+whether it is my position that is vanquished or only me personally, as
+long the audience rejects my views.</p>
+
+<p>If you are not a real &ldquo;devil,&rdquo; only playing the devil's
+advocate, you would not really wish to prevent me from presenting the
+intended point.  But you may prevent it without intending to.  Playing
+the devil's advocate means you act hostile even though you don't feel
+hostility.  Once you decide to say what an adversary would say, you
+are likely to do the job as well as you can, by imitating the toughest
+adversary you can imagine: the cunning and unscrupulous one, whose
+goal is to oppose rather than to get at the truth.</p>
+
+<p>If you know what such adversaries have said to me, or if you are
+skilled at imagining them, you would say the same things they do.
+These statements could distract the audience and block consideration
+of the issue, just as if a real adversary had said them.  But if you
+are not really my adversary, that result may not be what you really
+want.  If your goal was to shed light on the issue, your approach will
+have backfired.</p>
+
+<p>What I say on many issues goes against the establishment position, and
+I don't expect people to agree with me without considering the issue
+thoroughly, including the counterarguments.  Indeed, it would be
+almost impossible for anyone to avoid considering the establishment's
+arguments, since everyone knows them by heart.  To judge what is right
+requires getting to the bottom of the issue.</p>
+
+<p>The kind of questions that help get to the bottom of an issue are not
+those that a cunning and unscrupulous adversary would pose, but rather
+those of a thoughtful person who has not made up per mind.  They
+are questions that pare apart the aspects of the issue, so one can see
+the various possible positions on each aspect, what they imply, and
+how they relate.  Very different from playing devil's advocate.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, instead of trying to play the devil's advocate, I suggest
+that you adopt the goal of &ldquo;probing the issues.&rdquo;  And if
+you are asked how you would answer if someone else asked a hostile
+question, perhaps this essay is a good response.</p>
+
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+<div class="unprintable">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";>&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
+the FSF.  Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
+to <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
+        replace it with the translation of these two:
+
+        We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
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+
+        <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of
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+        href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
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+Please see the <a
+href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations
+of this article.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
+     files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
+     be under CC BY-ND 4.0.  Please do NOT change or remove this
+     without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
+     Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
+     document.  For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
+     document was modified, or published.
+     
+     If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
+     Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
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+     being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
+     
+     There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
+     Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2017 2012, 2017 Richard Stallman</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/";>Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2017/10/11 14:50:27 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>