devils-advocate.html (7792B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays upholding action" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>Devil's Advocate 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/devils-advocate.translist" --> 9 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 11 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 12 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 13 <div class="article reduced-width"> 14 <h2>Why the Devil's Advocate Doesn't Help Reach the Truth</h2> 15 16 <address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address> 17 18 <p>Playing the devil's advocate means challenging a position by saying 19 what a hypothetical adversary would say. I encounter this frequently 20 in interviews and Q&A sessions, and many people believe that this 21 is a good way to put a controversial position to the test. What it 22 really does is put the controversial position at a disadvantage.</p> 23 24 <p>There is an indirect way of playing the devil's advocate: to say, 25 “If I defended your position, how should I respond if someone said 26 XYZ?” This is less unfriendly than the ordinary devil's advocate, 27 who would simply say XYZ, but has the same effect.</p> 28 29 <p>Cunning adversaries try intentionally to obstruct thoughtful 30 consideration of a position they oppose. My cunning and unscrupulous 31 adversary (the “devil,” let us say) would not want my views 32 to get a proper hearing, especially if the devil thinks they are valid 33 and people might agree with them. The best way to prevent that is to 34 block me from making them understood.</p> 35 36 <p>The devil achieves that by twisting my words: presenting a misleading 37 context in which my words appear to mean something other than what I 38 intended. If this succeeds, it will confuse the audience and distract 39 them from the issue, in effect preventing it from being properly raised. 40 If this makes my words appear to mean something that the audience will 41 condemn, and which nobody present is really in favor of, I may need a 42 long explanation to get back on track. There may not be time for 43 this, or the audience might lose focus.</p> 44 45 <p>If I succeed in overcoming the first misunderstanding, the cunning 46 adversary would spring another, and another. If the adversary is 47 better at verbal fencing than I am, I might never get my point across. 48 If the stress makes me heated and I have trouble speaking clearly, the 49 adversary will count that a success. It matters little to the devil 50 whether it is my position that is vanquished or only me personally, as 51 long as the audience rejects my views.</p> 52 53 <p>If you are not a real “devil,” only playing the devil's 54 advocate, you would not really wish to prevent me from presenting the 55 intended point. But you may prevent it without intending to. Playing 56 the devil's advocate means you act hostile even though you don't feel 57 hostility. Once you decide to say what an adversary would say, you 58 are likely to do the job as well as you can, by imitating the toughest 59 adversary you can imagine: the cunning and unscrupulous one, whose 60 goal is to oppose rather than to get at the truth.</p> 61 62 <p>If you know what such adversaries have said to me, or if you are 63 skilled at imagining them, you would say the same things they do. 64 These statements could distract the audience and block consideration 65 of the issue, just as if a real adversary had said them. But if you 66 are not really my adversary, that result may not be what you really 67 want. If your goal was to shed light on the issue, your approach will 68 have backfired.</p> 69 70 <p>What I say on many issues goes against the establishment position, and 71 I don't expect people to agree with me without considering the issue 72 thoroughly, including the counterarguments. Indeed, it would be 73 almost impossible for anyone to avoid considering the establishment's 74 arguments, since everyone knows them by heart. To judge what is right 75 requires getting to the bottom of the issue.</p> 76 77 <p>The kind of questions that help get to the bottom of an issue are not 78 those that a cunning and unscrupulous adversary would pose, but rather 79 those of a thoughtful person who has not made up per mind (<a href="#ft1">1</a>). They 80 are questions that prise apart the aspects of the issue, so one can see 81 the various possible positions on each aspect, what they imply, and 82 how they relate. Very different from playing devil's advocate.</p> 83 84 <p>Thus, instead of trying to play the devil's advocate, I suggest 85 that you adopt the goal of “probing the issues.” And if 86 you are asked how you would answer if someone else asked a hostile 87 question, perhaps this essay is a good response.</p> 88 89 <hr class="column-limit" /> 90 <h3 class="footnote">Footnote</h3> 91 <ol> 92 <li id="ft1">The author uses the gender-neutral third person singular 93 pronouns “person,” “per,” and 94 “pers.”</li> 95 </ol> 96 </div> 97 98 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 99 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 100 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 101 <div class="unprintable"> 102 103 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 104 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 105 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 106 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 107 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 108 109 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 110 replace it with the translation of these two: 111 112 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 113 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 114 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 115 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 116 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 117 118 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 119 our web pages, see <a 120 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 121 README</a>. --> 122 Please see the <a 123 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 124 README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations 125 of this article.</p> 126 </div> 127 128 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 129 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 130 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 131 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 132 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 133 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 134 document was modified, or published. 135 136 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 137 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 138 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 139 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 140 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 141 142 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 143 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 144 145 <p>Copyright © 2012, 2017, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> 146 147 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 148 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 149 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 150 151 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 152 153 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 154 <!-- timestamp start --> 155 $Date: 2021/09/02 08:55:39 $ 156 <!-- timestamp end --> 157 </p> 158 </div> 159 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 160 </body> 161 </html>