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FourWinds F
FourWinds Sep 6, 2006 20:51:07
Replying to Hob

Here's a question for you (for anyone actually)

Can you have a conversation where both parties are playing devil's advocate. The Doc says he was doing so while at the same time I was doing so. Surely one person has to mean what they're saying.

L Littlestone
Littlestone Sep 6, 2006 21:38:01
Replying to FourWinds

FourWinds wrote:
Here's a question for you (for anyone actually)

Can you have a conversation where both parties are playing devil's advocate. The Doc says he was doing so while at the same time I was doing so. Surely one person has to mean what they're saying.

No, when both parties are playing devil's advocate each is advocating what the other believes :-)

Look at it this way, it's like an old-fashioned duel with pistols at dawn - the duellers take ten paces away from each other and fire - thing is, they don't actually turn round to face each other so there's obviously no possibility of a hit ;-)

H Hob
Hob Sep 6, 2006 21:51:41
Replying to FourWinds

FourWinds wrote:
Surely one person has to mean what they're saying.
Depends on what each person actually believes. If a Creationist and a Darwinist are arguing about evlution, but the Creationist argues it's evidence of natural selection, whilst the Darwinist argues that it's just part of God's grad design, are they both being devils advocate?

More commonly, woud be two people who are in rough agreement, each illustrating the fact by being 'Devil's Advocate-ier than thou'. Especially so if they're talking about abstracty esoteric stuff, 'cos with such subjects, it's often as easy to define a thing by describing what it is not, because you're not exactly sure what it is in the first place.

I think I need to go look at some cup marks...

D doktoratomik
doktoratomik Sep 6, 2006 22:22:35
Replying to FourWinds

FourWinds wrote:
Here's a question for you (for anyone actually)

Can you have a conversation where both parties are playing devil's advocate. The Doc says he was doing so while at the same time I was doing so. Surely one person has to mean what they're saying.

S'called the ancient art of compromise ;)