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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Robin,

I think the main reason to believe debate is a "truth-discovery procedure for the auditors" is that, in many contexts, the auditors themselves believe that's what is. The obvious example is jury trials. Political debates, such as during the presidential campaign, are a weaker example, since every candidate stands for not only his point-of-view but also his own mental abilities. Voters could take a legitimate issue in both matters. But insofar as the candidates are tokens for their points-of-view, watching them debate is a way to decide which point-of-view is more convincing.

Remember I concede that debaters themselves may be personally motivated by a rather unthoughtful competitiveness. I suppose it's a bit of a mug's game saying what some practice "is", when there's no author to consult, when participants disagree, and when depth psychology and sociological points of view might impute all sorts of hidden meanings.

I agree that pre-debate talk would improve their quality. I think it's a good idea. But I'd worry it would be hard to cleanly demarcate pre-debate issues (of terminology and scope) from the debate issues themselves. Those issues can themselves be subtle, and and there's a competitive advantage to bias matters your way. Maybe there's room for a trusted third party or some more structured procedure to mitigate that risk.

By the way, great blog!

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Robin Hanson's avatar

Alexis, you propose debate is a "truth-discovery procedure for the auditors" while I suggest debate is a "spectacle of combat is intended more to reveal relative mental abilities than to illuminate which conclusion is right." The lack of pre-debate talk weakly supports my suggestion - what evidence goes the other way?

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