Ancient Debate Wisdom

Drawing from Jewish debate wisdom to reinvigorate contemporary public discourse

We live in a cacophony. Our online public square is characterized by binary thinking. In theory, public debates should strengthen democracy, by exposing citizens to diverse perspectives and reasoned arguments. But in practice, online so-called “debates” are further polarizing us, as debaters straw-man each other to score points for their tribe.

Meanwhile, humanity has a rich legacy of dialogic practices. Throughout history, wisdom traditions worldwide have developed unique forms of cooperative argumentation — from Talmudic havrutah (~500 CE) and Socratic dialogue (~400 BCE) to Tibetan Buddhist debate (~7th century CE) and Jesuit disputation (~16th century CE).

And thus: how might we draw from our legacy of dialogic wisdom to reinvigorate contemporary public discourse?

That’s the question I explored on the SuperDebate podcast, together with debate experts John Connor and John Hines. I double-clicked on the tradition I inherited — Judaism — which is particularly rich in the art of productive disagreement:

Would you like us to explore other ancient debate practices? Let me know 🤓