Debate

• British Parliamentary debate is a format where four teams compete against each other, with two teams supporting the motion and two teams opposing it.
• Debate is the exchange of arguments on a topic.
• Argumentation is a claim advanced by support.
• Controversy refers to the prolonged argumentation at the societal level spanning space and time.
• Argumentation, or the process of forming and communicating claims based on supporting information, is a fundamental aspect of everyday life.
• Argumentation involves forming conclusions about something based on reasons, challenging another person’s reasons or conclusions, considering the benefits and drawbacks of action, and promoting interests.
• Argumentation is prevalent in everyday life, meaning that skills can be improved through self-improvement and study of theories and concepts of argumentation.
• Key terms in argumentation include argument, debate, and controversy.
• In the English language, the word “argument” can mean an object, an action, and a controversy.
• As an object, arguments are products that people construct and advance through communication.
• As an action, argument may mean an exchange of reasons on a topic among communicants.
• Sometimes, the word “argument” is used to refer to the general controversy, or many debates happening all over the place.
• Most of the time, technical sphere argumentation is governed by institutional structures or groups who enforce those guidelines.
• Con-sider the parallel to a church: Most faith traditions argue that a church exists not in a physical structure but in the community of people who assemble and behave in a particular religious manner (prayer, singing, etc.).
• Personal spheres involve informal argumentative exchanges in which the participants largely determine their own procedures and guidelines.
• Personal spheres are characterized by consequences that don’t extend much, if at all, beyond the individuals engaged in the debate.
• There are many technical spheres that may require different things on a resume—applying for a job in the education field requires different kinds of information and arguments than applying for a job in art or science.
• An argument sphere can emerge anywhere, including cyberspace.
• Personal spheres exist whenever we debate topics related to our lives and the lives of our family and friends.
• An argument sphere is a metaphoric realm of argumentation characterized by predictable patterns.
• An arguer’s responsibility is to demonstrate a sufficient case on the proposition.
• The resolution of the debate is of personal importance.
• Creating a resume is an argument—it offers evidence for your “profile” claim—that should be adapted to the technical sphere of the (kind of) workplace to which you’re applying.
• An argument sphere exists when a group of people assemble and behave in a particular argumentative manner.
• Technical spheres tend to be rule-driven and specialized, using logical forms and vocabulary appropriate to each arena.
• Three broad spheres—personal, technical, and public—usefully explain different patterns of argumentation.
• Scary Mommy is a website that provides pregnancy and parenting advice, describing itself as “a massive vibrant community of millions of parents, brought together by a common theme: Parenting doesn’t have to be perfect.”
• Public sphere debates about immigration became a personal sphere struggle in 2017 for the Beristains of South Bend, Indiana, when Roberto Beristain was detained and eventually deported for illegally entering the United States 15 years earlier.
• By publishing reports and working with various government institutions, the controversy entered the public sphere.
• John Dewey and journalist Walter Lippmann also famously debated in the 1920s this conflict between public and technical spheres.
• When Goodnight outlined the spheres in the 1980s, he expressed concern that “the public sphere is being steadily eroded by the elevation of the personal and technical groundings of argument.
• Maria Guido’s post on the vaccine controversy in the United States provides an example of the interaction between spheres.
• The interactions between spheres can tell us a lot about the evolution and, in some cases, the resolution of a controversy because we are able to chart how they develop across time and space.
• Concerns about climate change started in a technical sphere when scientists measured atmospheric carbon dioxide and discussed concerns about the “greenhouse effect.”
• Charles Arthur Willard argued that public controversies require expertise from technical spheres while noting that “every expert’s span of authority is narrower than most public problems,” requiring “an overlap of specialized discourses.
• The interaction of spheres can often exist independently but they can also conflict with or complement one another.
• The interactions can also tell us about the health of the various spheres.
• The personal sphere of argumentation is informal, participant-based, and involves everyday arguers through online forums.
• The public sphere of argumentation is open and democratic, involving the “public” community or society at large.
• The spheres of argumentation are represented in Guido’s post, which begins with the public sphere and includes the personal, scientific, and public concerns motivating the proposed law.