Three Debating Skills in Debate Competition

The original intention of going from customer to customer is that the customer in turn becomes the master. Metaphor turns passivity into initiative. In the debate, passivity is a common disadvantage in this field, and it is often a harbinger of failure. In the debate, the object of opposition is the main thing. What he said is to change passivity into initiative in the debate. Next, this paper tries to introduce several anti-customer skills to you by combining skill theory with practical argument analysis.

(1) Leverage

There is a trick in martial arts novels, which is called "using force to fight". It means that people with deep internal forces can use the strength of their opponents' attacks to fight back. This method is also suitable for argument.

For example, in the debate about "it's easy to do things despite difficulties", there was such a round:

Professor: Yes! Those people did not know the power of law until they went to the execution ground and died. The dignity of the law can be described as "retreat from difficulties", and the other side distinguishes friends! (warm applause)

When the other party used the example of "knowing the law is easy, but obeying the law is difficult" to demonstrate that knowing the law is easy and obeying the law is difficult, the positive party immediately turned to strengthen its point of view from the perspective of "knowing the law is not easy" and gave the other party a strong counterattack. Reversed the passive situation.

Here, Fang Zhengzhi is able to use the example of the opposing side to confront his body because he has a series of theories that are not verbally expressed and reinterpreted: the "knowledge" in the debate is not only the "knowledge" of knowledge, but also the "knowledge" based on human rationality; It is not difficult to obey the law. As a course of action, it is not difficult to kill people, but it is very difficult to know how to keep people's rationality and restrain the vicious desire to kill people. In this way, the broad and high-level definitions of "knowing the difficulty" and "doing the easy" of the opposing side, and the attack of the narrow and low-level definitions of "knowing the easy" and "doing the difficult ..." effectively hit back at the opposing side, and the argumentation framework of the opposing side based on the superficial level of "knowing" and "doing" collapsed.

(2) grafting

Removing the defective part of the other party's argument and replacing it with our favorable views or materials can often receive the miraculous effect of "four or two". We call this technique "grafting" For example, in the debate about overcoming difficulties, there have been the following examples:

Counterparty: The ancients said that "it is difficult to get through the road, but it is difficult to go to heaven", which means that it is difficult to get through the road, and "doing" means "going"! If it's not difficult, why doesn't the monkey call him Sun Zhiren?

Founder: Sun's nickname is Monkey Sun, but does his opponent know that his legal name is the Monkey King, which is the "knowledge" of "enlightenment"?

This is a very beautiful argument of "replacing trees with flowers". The example of the opposing side seems to be well-founded, but it is far-fetched: it is difficult to refute "why Sun Walker is not called Sun Zhiren". Although it is almost unreasonable, it has the upper hand in momentum. The positive side keenly discovered the one-sidedness of the other side's argument, and started with the "the Monkey King" side decisively, and retorted the other side by "knowing" or "knowing", which turned the other side's quotation about "Sun" into carrying firewood to put out the fire, which backfired.

The technique of replacing flowers with wood is a strong attack in argument theory, which requires debaters to be brave in making moves and fighting back, so it is also a kind of difficulty and high antagonism. Persuasive argument skills. It is true that the actual scene is eloquent and changeable, and there are no ready-made materials such as "Monkey Walker" and "Monkey King" available at any time, that is to say, more are "body double Flowers". It is necessary for debaters to accurately summarize or deduce each other's views and our position at that time.

For example, in the debate about "it is more important to cure poverty than stupidity", one sentence is affirmative: "... the debater of the other side measures the importance by urgency, so I want to tell you that I am hungry now and need food badly, but I still want to debate because I realize that debate is more important than hunger." As soon as the voice fell, there was applause. At this time, the opposing side calmly argued: "My opponent, I think that' not eating with food' and' not eating with food' are two different things ..." The other side's answer caused more warm applause. On the positive side, it advocates that poverty is not enough to fear and the relative importance of treating stupidity with "no food to eat", while on the negative side, it immediately summarizes the essence of "no food to eat" from its own point of view, clearly compares the essential differences between the two, and effectively curbs the tendency of the other party to steal the concept.

(3) Go with the flow

On the surface, we agree with the other party's point of view, follow the other party's logic, and set some reasonable obstacles according to our own needs in the derivation, so that the other party's point of view can not be established under additional conditions, or draw a conclusion completely opposite to the other party's point of view.

For example, in the argument that "Yu Gong should move mountains or houses":

Each other: ... We should ask each other to identify friends. Gong Yu solved the difficulties, protected resources and saved manpower.

Financial resources, what's going on?

Positive: Gong Yu's moving is a good way to solve the problem, but it is difficult for Gong Yu to go out where he is. How can he move home? ..... Obviously, we can consider moving, and we have to move after moving the mountain!

Myths and stories are only meaningful if they are exaggerated, and their essence lies not in themselves but in their meanings. Therefore, we must not let the opposing side tell the truth, otherwise, the "methodology" of the opposing side that conforms to the modern value orientation will certainly stand. Judging from the above argument, the other party's argument on this matter is well-founded and solid. On the positive side, it is affirmed that "moving is a good way to solve the problem", and then everyone "can hardly get out of the place where Yu Gong is", which naturally leads to the question of "how to move home", and finally comes to a series of theories such as "moving mountains first, then moving". It runs through one after another, and it beats the other side's matter-of-fact with an overwhelming attack. It's really wonderful!

(d) root causes.

The so-called radical, for example, this paper points out that the other party's argument is not closely related to the topic or runs counter to it, and fundamentally corrects the standpoint of the other party's argument and pulls it into our "sphere of influence" to make it just serve our point of view. Compared with the method of "pushing the boat with the current" of forward reasoning, this skill is just the opposite of its thinking.

For example, in the debate about whether job-hopping is conducive to the role of talents, there is such a defense:

Pro: Zhang Yong, the champion of the national table tennis championship, just jumped from Jiangsu to Shaanxi. The debater of the other side also said that he didn't contribute to the people of Shaanxi, which was really chilling! (Applause)

Counterparty: May I ask if the sports team may have jumped ship? This is the reasonable flow direction that we advocate here! (Applause) The opponent wears job-hopping glasses to see the problem. Of course, the world is as black as a crow, and all actions are job-hopping. (Applause)

Take Zhang Yong as an example. It is a fact that he has gained better space to develop himself after he moved from Jiangsu to Shaanxi. The opponent immediately pointed out that the specific example cited by the other side was wrong: Zhang Yong could not go to the sports team through the irregular talent flow mode of "job-hopping", but only "reasonable flow" under the principle of "fairness, equality, competition and merit", which was highly credible, convincing and shocking, and received obvious anti-customer effect.

(5) cut the bottom wages.

Clever and selective questioning is one of the offensive means used by many debaters. Usually this kind of question is premeditated, which will make people fall into a "dilemma". No matter which choice the other party makes, it is not good for them. The correct way is to take a preset option from the other party's multiple-choice questions and carry out a strong backchat to fundamentally frustrate the other party's spirit. This skill is to grasp the root cause of the problem.

For example, in the argument that "ideology and morality should adapt to (surpass) the market economy", there is the following round of confrontation:

Counterparty: ... I asked whether Lei Feng's spirit is selfless dedication or equivalent exchange spirit.

Advantages: ... the opponents here misunderstand the exchange of equivalence, which means that all exchanges should be equivalent, but it doesn't mean that everything is exchange. Lei Feng hasn't thought of exchange yet. Of course, Lei Feng's spirit is not the same. (Applause)

Counterparty: Then I want to ask another debater, is the core of our ideology and morality the spirit of serving the people or the spirit of seeking profits?

Professor: Isn't serving the people the requirement of market economy? (Applause)

In the first round, the other side had the intention of "inviting you to wait for the urn" and came prepared. Obviously, if the mindset passively answers questions, it will be difficult to deal with the "dilemma" of the cube presupposition: choosing the former just proves the view that the cube should "surpass the market economy"; Choosing the latter is contrary to the facts and even more absurd. The debater for the positive side jumped out of the box of "either-or" for the negative side, went straight to the subject, drew "equivalent exchange" from two preset options, and completely overturned its correctness as a preset option with a calm tone, sharp words, flexible response and clever techniques, which was amazing!

Of course, the actual situation on the debate field is very complicated. To turn passivity into initiative in debate, it is only one factor to master some anti-customer skills. On the other hand, it is necessary to improvise, which is quite in place, but there is no rule to follow.

(6) attack its key points.

In debates, it often happens that the two sides are entangled in some trivial issues, examples or expressions, and the result seems to be a lively debate, but in fact it is irrelevant to Wan Li. This is a taboo in argument. An important skill is to quickly identify the key issue in the opponent's argument after the first debate and the second debate, seize this issue and attack it to the end, so as to completely defeat the opponent in theory. For example, the key to the debate that "food and clothing is a necessary condition for talking about morality" is: Can we talk about morality without food and clothing? Only by always grasping this key issue in the debate can we give the other side a fatal blow. In the debate, people often have the saying that "avoiding the truth is empty", and it is necessary to use this technique occasionally. For example, if the other party asks a question that we can't answer, if we don't know, we will not only lose points, but even make jokes. In this case, we should tactfully avoid each other's problems and look for other weaknesses to attack. But in more cases, what we need is to "avoid the reality and be empty" and "avoid the importance and be light", that is, to be good at fighting hard on basic and key issues. If the other party asks questions, we will immediately avoid them, which will inevitably leave a bad impression on the judges and the audience, thinking that we dare not face up to the other party's questions. In addition, if the attack on the basic arguments and concepts put forward by the other party fails, it is also a loss of points. Being good at grasping the opponent's key points and attacking can win, which is an important skill in the debate.

(7) Using contradictions

Because the two sides of the debate are composed of four players, these four players often have contradictions during the debate. Even the same player may have conflicts in the free debate because of his fast speech. Once this happens, we should seize it immediately and try our best to expand the contradiction between the other side so that it can't take care of itself and attack us. For example, in the debate with the Cambridge team, the Cambridge team's three arguments think that law is not morality, while the second argument thinks that law is basic morality. These two views are obviously contradictory, and we took the opportunity to widen the gap between the two debaters of the other side and push the other side into a dilemma. For another example, the other side initially regarded "food and clothing" as the basic state of human existence, and later, under our fierce offensive, it talked about "hunger and cold". This is contradictory to the previous view. Our "spear belt, shield belt" made the other side speechless.

(8) "Draw the snake out of the hole"

In the debate, there is often a deadlock: when the other side insists on its own argument, no matter how we attack it, the other side only responds with a few words. If we still adopt the method of frontal attack, it will have little effect. In this case, it is necessary to adjust the means of attack as soon as possible, adopt a circuitous method, start with seemingly insignificant issues, and induce the other party to leave the position, thus hitting the other party and causing a sensational effect in the hearts of the judges and the audience. When we argued with the Sydney team that "AIDS is a medical problem, not a social problem", the other side clung to the view that "AIDS is caused by HIV and can only be a medical problem" and was unmoved. So, we adopted the tactic of "luring the snake out of the hole". In the second debate, we suddenly asked, "Excuse me, what is the slogan of World AIDS Day this year?" The other four debaters looked at each other. In order not to lose too many points on the court, the other side stood up and answered randomly. We immediately corrected it and pointed out that this year's slogan was "Time waits for no one, let's act", which was equivalent to opening a gap in the other side's position, thus disintegrating the firm front of the other side.

(9) Li Jiang

When we encounter some arguments that are difficult to demonstrate logically or theoretically, we have to adopt the method of "replacing peaches" and introduce new concepts to solve the difficulties. For example, the debate about "AIDS is a medical problem, not a social problem" is very difficult to argue, because AIDS is both a medical problem and a social problem, and it is difficult to separate the two problems from common sense. Therefore, according to our preconceived ideas, if we are allowed to demonstrate the positive side, we will introduce the new concept of "social impact", so as to affirm that AIDS has a certain "social impact", but it is not a "social problem", and strictly determine the meaning of "social impact", so that it is difficult for the other party to attack. Later, we got the opposite of the debate in the lottery, that is, "AIDS is a social problem, not a medical problem." In this case, it is unreasonable to completely deny that AIDS is a medical problem. Therefore, we introduced the concept of "medical approach" in the debate, emphasizing the use of "social system engineering" to solve AIDS. In this project, the "medical approach" will give us more room for manoeuvre, and the other party will spend a lot of effort to pester our new concept, and the attack power will be greatly weakened. The significance of this tactic is to introduce a new concept to deal with the other side, so as to ensure that some key concepts in our argument are hidden behind and not directly attacked by the other side.

Debate is a very flexible process, in which some more important skills can be used. Experience tells us that only by combining knowledge accumulation with debate skills can we achieve better results in debate.

(10) plan to slow down the troops.

In daily life, we can see the following situations: when the fire brigade receives a call for help, it often answers it in a slow tone. This gentle tone is to stabilize the speaker's mood so that the other party can explain the situation correctly. For another example, when couples quarrel, one side is depressed and the other side is not in a hurry. As a result, the latter prevailed. For another example, political and ideological workers often adopt the method of "cold treatment" to deal with difficult problems slowly. All these situations show that "slowness" is also a good way to deal with problems and solve contradictions in some occasions. So is the debate. In some specific debate situations, fast attack and quick battle are unfavorable, but slow progress can win.

For example, in 1940, Churchill served as Minister of the Navy in Chamberlain's cabinet, and was respected by people because he advocated declaring war on Germany. At that time, public opinion welcomed Churchill to succeed Chamberlain as British Prime Minister, and Churchill also thought that he was the most suitable candidate. But Churchill did not rush for success, but adopted the strategy of "winning slowly". He has publicly stated many times that he will be ready to serve the motherland under the leadership of anyone in the extraordinary period when the war breaks out.

At that time, Chamberlain and other Conservative Party leaders decided to recommend Lord Halifax, who supported the appeasement policy, as the prime minister candidate. However, the British people who participated in the main battle realized that only Churchill had the ability to lead the war politically. At the meeting to discuss the candidates for prime minister, Chamberlain asked, "Does Mr. Churchill agree to join the government led by Halifax?" The eloquent Churchill said nothing and was silent for two minutes. Halifax and others understand that silence means opposition. Once Churchill refuses to join the cabinet, the new government will be overthrown by angry people. Halifax had to break the silence first, saying that it was inappropriate for him to form a government. Churchill's wait finally paid off and the king authorized him to form a new government.

For another example, in a shop, a customer came to the door angrily and said endlessly, "The heels of these shoes are too high, and the style is not good ..." The clerk listened to him patiently without interrupting him. When the customer stopped talking, the salesperson said calmly, "Your opinion is very straightforward, and I appreciate your personality. Tell you what, I'll go in and choose another pair to please you. " "If you are not satisfied, I am willing to serve you again." The customer's dissatisfaction was exhausted and he felt that he had gone too far. He was also embarrassed to see the salesperson answer his questions so patiently. As a result, he made a 180 turn, praised the clerk's new shoes, and said, "Hey, these shoes are good, just like those made for me." The clerk let the customers vent their anger from slow to fast and from cold to hot, so as to achieve psychological balance and resolve the dispute.

From the above example, we can sum up that we should pay attention to the following three points in order to correctly use the method of "winning by slow" in the argument:

First, take a slow standby preemptive strike.

As the saying goes, "haste makes waste." Acting rashly when the time is not ripe often fails to achieve the goal. The same is true of debate, and "slowness" is also necessary under certain conditions. In fact, the method of "winning slowly" is a tactic to delay the enemy's invasion. When the debate situation is not suitable for quick decision, or the time is not yet ripe, we should avoid direct confrontation between the needle and the wheat, but should delay the time to wait for the arrival of the fighter plane. Once the time is right, we can attack the enemy from behind and defeat him. For example, in the first case, Churchill was not in a hurry to succeed when the time was not ripe, but slowly stood by. At the critical moment of discussing the candidate for prime minister, he expressed his opposition with silence and finally won.

Second, the implementation is slow, weak and strong.

The method of "winning by slowness" is suitable for the debate occasions where disadvantages are against advantages and disadvantages are against strengths. It is a strategic means adopted by the weak to defeat the seemingly powerful side. There is a trick to "slow", and slow motion should be clever. The word "slow" here is not synonymous with slow response and inarticulate, but one of the magic weapons used by eloquent speakers who are still wise and stupid. For example, in the first case, Churchill's playing dumb and stalling in the face of Chamberlain's questioning is actually a delaying tactic. In this stubborn stalemate, Chamberlain's side finally lost his temper, and Churchill finally won by taking the measure of delaying tactics.

Third, slow down anger, slow down cold and heat.

"Slow" is still a good skill to "control anger" in debate. In an argument, people who are angry and have poor self-control are easily excited. In this case, to convince people who are overly excited, it is advisable to deal with them in slow motion and slow tone. Slowing down anger, from cold to hot, can make it "cool down and decompress". Only when the other person is calm can he talk to you smoothly.

Accept it. For example, in the second case, the salesperson calmed the other party's anger and resolved the contradiction with a calm attitude and gentle tone.

In short, "fast" and "slow" in the debate are also a dialectical relationship of unity of opposites. Soldiers are expensive and fast, and "fast" is of course good. However, sometimes "slowness" has its beauty. Slow can stand by, slow can make plans, and slow can control anger. Slow is a tough tactic, slow is a protracted war, and slow is a delaying tactic in the war of words. Although it takes a long time to walk slowly and spend slowly, it is often a shortcut to victory, although there is a big bend.

Dewey's view of knowing and doing is of special significance in his trip to China. Revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, reformist Hu Shi and educator Tao Xingzhi were all influenced by him. For example, Sun Yat-sen opposed China's traditional theory of "knowing what is difficult" and held the theory of "knowing what is difficult and doing what is easy", emphasizing the importance of revolutionary theory to the revolutionary cause and inspiring the revolutionary party's fighting spirit with the feasibility of practice. 19 19, Dewey met with Sun Yat-sen shortly after arriving in China. They talked about the relationship between knowledge and practice. Dewey said to Dr. Sun Yat-sen, "If you overemphasize practicality, it is unrealistic. No one in the West believes that' knowledge' is an easy thing. " {28} In China's speech, he also talked about the relationship between knowing and doing many times:

In ancient China, I heard that "it is not difficult to know, but it is difficult to do". The experimental method is the opposite. This is just a line, and then you can know. Without action, there is no real knowledge. With action, we can discover new bright and organized facts and previously unexplored knowledge. Therefore, without lines, there must be no real knowledge. {29}

Dewey's pragmatism epistemology is based on action, and he named his epistemology "pragmatism epistemology", which he summarized as follows:

Its essential feature is to persist in understanding and purposefully change the continuity between environments. Pragmatic epistemology holds that in a strict sense, knowledge includes all kinds of resources in our rationality-including all habits that make us act wisely. Only the knowledge that has been organized into our psychological tendency, which enables us to adapt the environment to our needs and our goals and aspirations to our situation, is the real knowledge. Knowledge is not only what we realize now, but also our psychological tendency to use it consciously when we understand what is happening now. As an action, knowledge is to consider the connection between ourselves and the world we live in and mobilize some of our psychological tendencies to solve a puzzling problem. {30}

Perhaps because of pragmatism's outstanding emphasis on action, it is often understood that pragmatism regards action as the purpose of life. Dewey clarified this misunderstanding and pointed out that action is the medium to apply concepts to the process of existence, and the result of application constitutes the real meaning of concepts to the change of existence. Therefore, pragmatism is by no means a compliment to the kind of action for action that is regarded as the characteristic of American life.

As mentioned above, Dewey puts knowledge in the process of starting from the experience of action and then returning to the experience to verify it, which may be called "action produces true knowledge"; But this does not mean that he ignored the discovery of new facts and new truths, which is more valuable than the argument of the old theory. When discussing the transformation of philosophy from the old way of thinking to the new way of thinking, he cited Bacon's example. He introduced with appreciation that Bacon reasonably believed that no matter what the theory was, anyone who took the method of knowledge as an argument for the truth obtained was suppressing the spirit of research and binding people's minds so that they could not go beyond the traditional knowledge. Bacon pointedly pointed out that the discovery of new facts and new truths obtained by thoroughly exploring natural secrets is superior to the old argument. As the father of induction, Bacon saw that the significance of science lies in marching into the unknown, not in the repeated narration of the theory of known things-the endless discovery of unknown facts and principles is the real spirit of induction. Dewey's induction this time can be described as "action leads to new knowledge". Whether "true knowledge" or "new knowledge" means that action makes knowledge effective, and education can only affect individuals and change society.

In education, "learning by doing" advocated by Dewey is the full application of the principle of action in education. In experimental schools, exploring the relationship between knowledge and practice is an integral part of educational philosophy.

(2) Reject absoluteness

Dewey believes that the progress of experimental science gives the most direct blow to the traditional separation of line and knowledge and the pure "knowledge" discipline. Explain that only by doing can people gain real knowledge and effective understanding. He suggested that the experimental method widely used in natural science since17th century should be used as a method to form and test the concepts of social and moral problems. In his view, experimental method is a way to acquire knowledge and ensure that it is not only an opinion, but also a method of discovery and proof. Unless people's activities produce changes that conform to and confirm people's concepts, their beliefs are only assumptions, theories, hints and conjectures, and they can only temporarily accept experimental attempts. Scientific experimental method is an experiment of ideas, and experiment is not equal to blind reaction. People need to observe the consequences of the experiment and make predictions and plans in similar situations in the future. The laboratory is to discover all kinds of situations. Experience becomes practice, not cognition, but action and the consequences of taking action. In this way, experience is no longer empirical, but experimental-"experience is experiment". {3 1} But Dewey is fully aware of the arduousness of his proposal, because he sees that people are often accustomed to the support of beliefs determined by dogma and authority, so as to alleviate their thinking difficulties and guide their activities through thinking. He quoted Mill as saying that the school at that time was "more suitable for cultivating believers than for cultivating explorers". {32} But he believes that one day, epistemology must come from practice.

Experimental method means rejecting absolute dogma. In Dewey's view, many philosophies equate reality with certain, regular and complete things, and seek to endow the real world with a complete, complete and definite feature. His empirical philosophy shows a relative world: truth and error, eternity and change, novelty and repetition, life and death, all of which are accompanied by each other. Heraclitus and Laozi explained the world with the theory of relativity.

The same is true of nature. The combination of question and certainty makes every existence, every idea and every activity of human beings become experiments. To adopt an experimental attitude intellectually is to recognize the staggered state of this natural condition and make use of it, rather than being at its mercy. Dewey explained from the viewpoint of relativity that change depends on the speed and acceleration compared with other things, and the statement of constant and permanent is relative. "One thing can be eternal, but it is not eternal; As long as it exceeds a certain limit, it will be bitten into pieces by the teeth of time. Every existence is an event. " {33}

But absolutism is against the experimental spirit. Absolutism is closely related to monism. Dewey mentioned James' views on monism and pluralism with appreciation in his speech at 1907. In Zhan's view, monism adheres to a rigid absolutism, everything is fixed and constantly combined with other things, where indecision, free choice, novelty and unpredictable things in experience have no place; That universe sacrificed the concrete and complex diversity of things for the simplicity and nobility of architectural structure. In the aspect of belief, monism needs the temperament of rationalism, leading to a fixed dogmatic attitude. Pluralism, on the other hand, leaves room for contingency, freedom and novelty, and gives empirical methods complete freedom of action, which can be greatly expanded. It recognizes unity, but it does not try to impose the great differences between events and things on a single, rational model. In short, the essence of monism is to stifle the spirit of freedom, and any authoritarian system tends to suppress freedom of thought, speech and belief by unifying thoughts. Pluralism advocates tolerance of different opinions, which is the soil, rain and sunshine that breeds freedom.

Dewey thinks that the progressiveness and variability of experience exclude the wholeness and the ultimate. All concepts, theories and systems must be regarded as hypotheses, as the basis of verification actions, rather than the results of actions. {34} In his view, all existing knowledge and ideas have the relativity of "time and space". There is no universal truth in the world. Truth is relative. In different time and space backgrounds, there are different forms of development and expression. Philosophical problems and arguments are not eternal. They want to contact the local emergency affairs at that time, and all opinions need to be critically tested according to their "time and space" to resist knowledge. This is the value of experimental experience. Experimental experience means that ideas are a hypothesis, not the ultimate truth. In order to express them more accurately, they must be constantly tested and revised. Ideas and hypotheses can be verified according to the results produced by the activities of ideas or hypotheses. In the experimental method, people need to introspect and summarize the results of various thoughts, actions and observations. Through introspection, we can review what we have done in the past and draw pure meaning from it as the main resource to deal with the future wisely.

Dewey's opposition to absoluteness and finality was expressed in China's Speech:

We don't want to arbitrarily claim that there is no panacea. Our real task is to ask many questions and occasionally participate in one or two opinions. {35}

In China, this passage was transformed by Hu Shi and widely known through a famous debate in the modern history of China. 19 19 In July, Hu Shi published a series of articles on "Problems and Doctrine" in Weekly Review, which triggered a heated debate between Li Dazhao and Lan Zhixian. In Hu Shi's view, adhering to Dewey's liberal thought and experimental method, valuable ideas begin with the study of specific problems, investigate the crux of the problem, then imagine solutions according to personal knowledge and experience, infer the possible consequences of each hypothetical solution, and finally choose solutions from the inferred results:

Study more specific problems and talk less about abstraction. All doctrines and theories should be studied, but only as some hypothetical opinions, not as the dogma of God's truth; Can only be used as reference materials, not as the golden rule of religion; It can only be used as a tool to enlighten the mind, and can never be used as an absolute truth to blind wisdom and stop thinking. Only in this way can we gradually cultivate the creative thinking ability of human beings, gradually make human beings have the ability to solve specific problems, and gradually liberate human superstition of abstract nouns. {36}

Hu Shi metaphorically said that "ism" is like a soup-head song tactic used by doctors as a reference to treat patients' pain. Doctors should not only remember the recipe of Tang Tou Song, but also forget the patient's pain ("problem"). For example, on the issue of "modernization", he thinks its essence is: how to solve China's difficulties, so as to build a vibrant China and let it occupy a safe and equal position in this modern world. "The problem lies in the establishment of China, not in the establishment of a certain doctrine". Chen Duxiu also holds a similar view that "there is no absolute right or wrong in truth, and things should be advocated and abolished at an appropriate time". Tao Xingzhi also insisted: "Only by in-depth study of their own needs and problems can we definitely formulate an education system that truly suits China's national conditions and serves China."

Let reason convince both sides.

We know that the debate in the debate does not need to convince the other party, only the judges and the audience; As long as the judges and the audience are convinced, the debate will win. Daily debates aimed at softening objections are different. This requires not only persuading the other party, but also preparing yourself to be persuaded (this is the theory).