Lincoln-Douglass Debate 101

The Basics
Remember: All debate is:

Claim: Premise you are arguing. [Dogs are bad]
Warrant: Your evidence. [According to Harvard Study, 75% of dogs bite humans] Impact: Reasoning; So what? [Dog bites can lead to Rabies, which leads to death. Death is bad]

Remember, If you know this, you can do any debate.

What is LD? Philosophy Debate or Values Debate

Ethics and Morals [What Youll See the Most] Political Philosophy [What Youll See the 2nd Most] Metaphysics, concerned with abstract thought or subjects, as existence, causality, or truth. [Advanced, Kritiks] Epistemology or Logic [Advanced; Theory] Meta-Ethics [Advanced; AEC]

Mano y Mano [One on One]

Times

6 Min Affirmative Constructive 3 Min Cross-Examination 7 Min Negative Constructive 3 Min Cross-Examination 4 Min Affirmative Rebuttal 6 Min Negative Rebuttal 3 Min Affirmative Rebuttal 4 Min Prep for both sides

LD Resolutions
Compared to PFD, LD resolutions arent that different. Only different being the scope of the resolution

PFD: Empirics and Real world since it deals with current events. LD: Normative and Theoretical, since it deals with Idealism.

LD resolutions provide more clash with the topic

LD Rez v. PFD Rez

LD Rez:

Resolved: In the United States criminal justice system, truth-seeking ought to take precedence over attorney-client privilege.

PFD Rez
Resolved: The benefits of domestic surveillance by the NSA outweigh the harms. Resolved: Unilateral military force by the United

Resolved: In a democracy, voting ought to be compulsory.

Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee universal health care for its citizens. Resolved: Oppressive government is more desirable than no government. Resolved: Individuals have a moral obligation to assist people in need

States is justified to prevent nuclear proliferation.

Resolved: The benefits of American drone strikes against foreign targets outweigh the harms. Resolved: On balance, the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission harms the election process. Resolved - Current U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East undermines our national security.

Resolved: It is morally permissible for victims to use deadly force as a deliberate response to repeated domestic violence.

Types of LD Resolutions

Types of LD Resolutions

Types of LD Resolutions

Types of LD Resolutions

The Case

Observations [ Framework Arguments to Benefit your side] Value or a statement of some broad concept of great value that is specific to your case Criterion, focused standard that your audience can use to determine whether you have provided adequate support for your value premise. It essentially defines your value premise

Just think of the Value Criterion as the Thesis of you case.

Contention Level arguments

Think of this as paragraphs of your essay

The Essential Framework of the Case

Values

What your case is overall about

Common Values [You as the case maker define what each below means, usually citing a philosopher, to uphold your position.]
Justice Morality Freedom/ Liberty Life Human Rights Free Expression / Speech Democracy Equality/Egalitarianism Societal Good / General Will / Society Majority Rule National Interest / National Security Legitimate Government Individualism / Autonomy Safety Progress Privacy

Criterions
Is the means you use to uphold your Value. Main goal for the criterion is to find away to construct a link between your
value and contention level argument.

Lets Look at a case

Research

LD is based on Scholarly Research, rather current event/ News articles in PFD Great places to go to research Philosophy and Scholarly Articles include:

www.academia.edu Plato.Stanford.edu www.Scribd.com

www.Jstor.org
Google.com/scholar

Basic Ethics: Utilitarianism vs. Deontology

Utilitarianism: Basically Means Judge what is good by evaluating Greatest Good/happiness for the Greatest Amount of People.

Based on Consequential ethics, which means to evaluate what is good based on the situation as a whole
Two Burning Buildings Scenario Murder is bad Stealing is bad

Deontology: Basically means to judge was is good by evaluating everything on face value.

The difference in these two forms of judging Morality or what is good is usually the standard ideas in LD debate. Youll see these two most often.