The Dark Secret of Good Debate Theory
In the last post, we introduced Omni: a complete theory ecosystem that builds policy, value, and fact arguments from the same common foundation.
That foundation is resolutionism.
Resolution: a true/false statement that is evaluated by a vote.
Resolutionism: the theory that an affirmative ballot supports the resolution, and a negative ballot negates it.
Ace Peak coaches reference resolutionism constantly because it can explain almost everything that happens in the round. It is the most fundamental idea in Omni. It is the Prime Mover of debate theory. It is the original idea from which all other ideas - including the resolution itself - emerge.
This is easy enough at face value, but we’re skipping over a dark secret:
Nothing at this deep level can be proven.
That’s what it means to be a Prime Mover: it doesn’t depend on anything else, and that means it is intrinsically arbitrary. Debate is just a made-up schedule of speeches. Resolutions are made-up phrases. And the meaning of a resolution is just something we make up. We can’t prove that resolutionism is correct, or disprove its competitors.
And let’s be clear. Resolutionism has plenty of competitors - other paradigms with different Prime Movers. A few alternatives:
Stock Issues: The theory that an affirmative ballot is the required response to a case that meets all 4 arbitrary checks of topicality, significance, solvency, and inherency.
Negation: The theory that the burden of the affirmative is to take a refutable position, and the burden of the negative is to refute that position.
Contest: The judge should vote for whoever gave the best arguments/performance.
And that’s before we get into the fancy stuff like games theory and parametrics. We can’t say that any of them are wrong. All we can do is say that we prefer resolutionism because it produces better debates and a more reliable path to victory. If you prefer something else, you’re entitled to that perspective. You’re not wrong, you just have a different preference. But you are probably going to lose to someone using Omni.
We’ll finish laying the foundation of Omni theory in the next few posts. Come back soon.