Debate ideas: Philosophy Forums

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Debate ideas

Esran
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Posted 07/16/04 - 09:29 AM:	#1
Do we have to stick to the two suggestions that you made Paul? Please don't take offense, but to me, they aren't very interesting at the moment. Can people create their own topics and debate them with your approval instead of picking one from a list? Or can we have a much, much, much longer list of options?
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Paul
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0 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 07/16/04 - 09:34 AM:	#2
Esran - That's what the rest of the forum is for, obviously. See http://forums.philosophyforums.com/showthread.php?t=8183 and contact Interlocutor (not me) once you have someone to debate with. (Personally I'm bored by all the politics and religion topics, hence I came up with a list of 10 metaphysics and epistemology topics and eventually narrowed it down to those two.)

Esran
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Posted 07/16/04 - 10:47 AM:	#3
Understood. Please ignore the application that I sent you Paul.
St. Nilus O Lord Jesus Christ Son Of God Have Mercy Upon Me A Sinner

Rainman
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1 of 2 people found this post helpful Posted 07/16/04 - 12:43 PM:	#4
Why not have multiple debates simultaneously (on the same topic) between pairs you feel are equally matched? -- Compete the debates and have a vote on the overall winner.
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EntropicOrder
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1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 07/16/04 - 01:56 PM:	#5
Rainman wrote: Why not have multiple debates simultaneously (on the same topic) between pairs you feel are equally matched? -- Compete the debates and have a vote on the overall winner. Each would be able to steal ideas from the other though.
My game sites: http://www.entropicorder.net, http://www.plushquest.com My giant stuffed animal store: http://www.mybigplush.com "But the wise man neither rejects life nor fears death. For living does not offend him, nor does he believe not living to be any evil." - Epicurus

Paul
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1 of 2 people found this post helpful Posted 07/16/04 - 02:29 PM:	#6
Plus it would prejudice the voting, plus I'm not going to give out that many prizes, plus most importantly no one actually wants to read 10 debates on the same topic. Multiple debates at once is fine -- but debate one of the 50 or so topics not yet done from Interlocutor's list, or a new topic of your own invention, so we can have some variety. In fact here's a bunch of other topics I thought up which you can use if you want: [1] Which theory of truth (semantic, correspondence, etc) is correct? [2] What is the nature of time? (Presentism vs. possibilism vs. eternalism) [2a] Does the present exist? [3] Is knowledge based on foundations? (foundationalism vs. coherentism, contextualism, etc) [4] Is global skepticism rational? [5] Does sense data exist? [6] Newcomb's problem (nicely has two options) [7] Mary and the black and white room (also nicely has two options, she does or doesn't have new knowledge) Just post in Interlocutor's topics thread asking for someone who has an different position to debate you on it.

Rainman
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Posted 07/16/04 - 06:02 PM:	#7
EntropicOrder wrote: Each would be able to steal ideas from the other though. Yeah, that or they could steal from one of the few ideas that existed in the dark ages of philosophy before the official philosophyforums.com debate. Just thinking it might be more open that way.
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The Bearded Monkey
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1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 07/17/04 - 03:39 AM:	#8
if it's a philosophical debate then obviously no one can be a winner, often philosophical issues stay unanswered for years. what's the point in deciding who is the winner? the loser can debate with the judge and convince him wrong and other situations can be argued against deciding who is the winner. i think the only one issue that a winner can be decided from is with the zombies but the debate with free will and determnism is an issue that could be debated over and over (i cant see one person from this issue duel victorious).
i shall take the whichpath to quantum catastrophe theory.

Rainman
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1 of 2 people found this post helpful Posted 07/17/04 - 04:39 AM:	#9
lqg wrote: what's the point in deciding who is the winner? Competition, group participation, fun. That these are mainly questions that will not be decided conclusively is exactly the entertainment value of a debate. So what if it's subjective.
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DarkCloud
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Posted 07/17/04 - 05:29 AM:	#10
Topic A: Are zombies possible? ... and there perishes any shred of respectability that Paul has been trying to cultivate Though I know what you're talking about (Jamacia and Caribbean) but still... at first glance, this looks like a joke Could be fun to debate, however. Sadly, I don't have the time for this. -DC

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