The Importance of an Open Mind in Debate

One of my favorite philosophies I live by is to have an open mind that is willing to hear anyone out and truly consider how another person thinks. One area I find this philosophy extremely important is in debate. Unfortunately, it is very common nowadays to debate with a closed mind, unwilling to even consider your opponent’s argument. I’ve seen many people around me argue in this way, which completely defeats the purpose of debate if you aren’t even thinking about what the other person is saying. You will even see this in presidential debates of the past 15 years, where the winning strategy is to just push your opinion and simply name call the other opinion without any deconstruction of the argument. One principle that I stand by is that if you can’t understand why your opponent has the opinion that they have, then you can never have a proper debate. 

When I disagree with someone, I follow these rules to maintain an open mind. I will always hear any argument, even if it is illogical or vastly different from my opinion. I always try to understand why this person has to come to this conclusion, whether they made a mistake in following logic or if they have different information than I do and came to a different conclusion as a result. It is then up to me to show them how they made a logical mistake, compare our different information and find out which one is right, or acknowledge that we simply have different preferences on the matter. Only after you have done this can you truly change someone’s mind or even change your own. 

My friend and I regularly debate on all types of issues. We both follow this formula and it results in healthy debates that are geared towards actually finding the truth. Often, I will even take the opposite opinion to some of my own beliefs in order to challenge and strengthen them. If you are truly in search of the truth, you should never be afraid to hear another argument.