CF Dictionary · Discourse & Debate
Debate Tree
An idea tree for a debate — possibly between two people, possibly about a whole field's open questions.
A debate tree is an idea-tree for a debate. It can describe a specific argument between two people or the overall state of an open question in a field.
Two kinds
- One-on-one. "Elliott Temple vs. AI researcher about Popper." See example debate.
- Field-level. "What are the open questions in Austrian economics?"
CF has built field-level debate trees for:
- Austrian Economics
- Critical Rationalism
- Objectivism
- Animal Rights
Why debate trees beat credentials
CF uses debate trees to judge experts by the objective state of the debate, not by status:
- Read the tree. What are the main claims and objections?
- Find the open nodes. Which points have no reply?
- Assess the expert's contribution. Did they close open nodes?
This is more rigorous than deferring to credentials.
What debate trees enable
- Paths Forward.: Open nodes are paths forward.
- Objective evaluation. Anyone can read the tree.
- error-correction.: Tree shows where errors persist.
Limits
- Not exhaustive. A debate tree is opinionated; it omits less-important points.
- Not a transcript. It's a summary structure.
- Not static. Trees should be updated as the debate evolves.
"Debate trees provide a better way to judge expertise. What people generally do is look at social status, proxies for social status (without realizing that they're judging by social status), or agreement (the expert says what you want to hear). Those approaches are biased, not truth-seeking." — criticalfallibilism.com