Yes/No Debate #3: Should morality be for friends, only?

I’ve published a third video Yes/No Debate — and this time, I participated myself.

We discussed the claim presented in the video Morality is for Friends, Only.

As my guest supporting the claim, I invited Kieran, who writes on Substack and X (Twitter).

Open the video on YouTube to see a list of all questions asked and their timestamps.

Changes from previous debates

This time, I decided to drop the rule about switching roles. Each person could keep asking questions as long as they wanted, and we switched roles benevolently once we felt a point had been sufficiently discussed.

I felt this improved the flow of the discussion and allowed us to focus much better on individual points.

Learnings from this debate

  • The answer should be given right at the beginning. This makes it easier for listeners, as they don’t have to parse a long reasoning process to find a hidden Yes or No inside.
  • In my opinion, a False Premise was sometimes called out incorrectly. Within the Yes/No debate format, I want to define a False Premise as:

“A claim that I would agree to no matter whether I answer Yes or No” (And I actually disagree with it.)

  • Therefore, when calling out a False Premise, the answerer must also state this underlying claim.

  • In some cases, the answerer needed a clearer definition of a term. It’s fine to ask for this, but if the meta-discussion becomes excessive, it’s good to remember that definitions are practically relevant only when they affect the answer.

    • For instance, if asked “Should it be legal to kill a random person with a knife?”, I don’t need a definition of “knife” if I’m against the killing regardless of the weapon.

    • If the definition makes a difference, then Depends is actually a suitable reply. You can then define the word in two ways yourself:

      • In one way where your answer is Yes,
      • and in another where your answer is No.

Looking for new debates

If you hold an interesting belief, reach out to me if you’d like to have a Yes/No debate — either with me or someone you know, spoken via video or in written form.