We spent a lot of time on this year’s GuideS… that’s right! We have TWO LD GUIDES. Take advantage of the bundled price (only $40) up until the end of the weekend. Go to the SHOP now, or hear what recent graduate and National LD Finalist, Lasting Impact Team Member, Kaeley Whitacre had to say about this resolution. I gave her the task of tackling it, as if she were still a competitor…
This May Be One of NCFCA’s Most Interesting Resolutions! When the new NCFCA Lincoln-Douglas resolution came out for this year, I was skeptical. It wasn’t the resolution I’d voted for, and before doing some cursory reading, I didn’t even know what rationalism or empiricism meant. My thoughts were along the lines of: Who really cares about these issues anyways? Are the judges going to know what I’m talking about, and will they care? Will any of the previous debate research I’ve done apply at all? And after briefly looking over the whitepapers, all I could think was: Aren’t rationalism and empiricism both necessary? Why are we even having this debate?
Fortunately, as I’ve begun to research this resolution, I’ve become increasingly excited about this year’s debates.
After some initial background reading, the gears began turning, and one of the first inspirations for case writing I had stuck with me. Last year I read C.S. Lewis’ book ‘Mere Christianity’ for the first time, and Lewis writes in depth on his conversion to Christianity. As I researched rationalism, this quote kept coming back to me, “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?” Wasn’t this rationalism? The realization that humans have certain innate knowledge? This was the first time the resolution started coming to life for me. As someone who loves discussions about morality, I think this could be a fascinating area of debate this year.
The next lightbulb moment for me happened at my church as one of my pastors was discussing science and Christianity. He pointed out that most scientific advancements have occurred because we have an innate assumption that there is order and meaning to the world. This was another fundamental assumption that we all seem to have, and as I researched, I discovered this was another key piece of rationalism.
The more I studied and considered rationalism, it appeared at its most basic level to encompass key presuppositions that we as people have. These presuppositions come apart from experience, but they underlie our understanding of what we experience. In other words, these rationalistic ideas are not only important, but are the foundation of and critical to our pursuit of truth.
These ideas don’t just exist in the realm of morality and our sense of order. We can also observe them in mathematics, language, government, and logic. While there may be a little bit of explaining to do with affirmative, it covers some fascinating areas. The affirmative dives deep into the connection between our reasoning and innate assumptions in addition to how these things shape our view of reality.
One of my initial hesitations with this resolution was: Aren’t rationalism and empiricism both necessary? I eventually recognized that in this particular area, I had been thinking about the resolution incorrectly. The resolution wasn’t asking whether the framework of rationalism or empiricism should be exclusively used, but rather which was more valuable, and this is especially important to how we frame this debate. With this premise in mind, I turned my attention to empiricism. I decided that the most important conflict lay not in whether or not we had intrinsic knowledge, but in whether innate logic or careful observation is more important. This gave a consistent framework for debate while leaving significant grounds for argumentation.
Thus far in my reading, empiricism seems to lend itself to more straightforward argumentation than rationalism. While it’s not necessarily a stronger position than rationalism, it is far easier to understand and explain. It focuses on experience, observation, and the senses which are concepts that tend to be more simple and relatable. After all, everyone has made observations about the world, but not all of us have sat down for some serious reflection on our innate knowledge.
With all of this in mind, staying straightforward, simple, and focused on observation, seems to be the strongest position for the negative. I began by exploring the connection between the scientific method and empiricism. After all, empiricism is based on observation, and the scientific method is a structured way of observing. Science and empiricism are heavily intertwined in many different areas. The negative position in this resolution is exciting because there are so many different examples to use and directions you can go. I discovered numerous connections especially in the areas of medicine, astronomy, and almost any scientific area you can name.
While I was initially skeptical of this resolution, I’ve realized that it is both important and versatile. Understanding how we come to know truth is especially crucial, as we are constantly bombarded by assumptions and social media sound bytes. While the terms rationalism and empiricism may be new to you at first, the search for truth and knowledge is not, and this resolution opens the door for those conversations to happen.
For those concerned that their previous Lincoln-Douglas research won’t apply, I think this greatly depends upon how you choose to frame the resolution. This debate could center around how we come to the truth in science, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, law, government, morality, society and more. You don’t have to be boxed into one area this year, but can research based on your interests. With this resolution you can use much of what you have likely been studying in other areas of school as evidence for your cases. This allows for far more creativity and a wider variety of cases than in previous years.
Although this resolution may seem daunting at first glance, I hope you’ll take the time to research it and give it a chance. Be willing to get creative and look for the areas where this discussion is important today. In the end, this resolution appears to be one that will encourage new and different conversations in Lincoln-Douglas: conversations that are equally as important and perhaps more interesting than a standard government related resolution.
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