Worst Debater Alain De Botton - 1123 Words

Worst Debater: Alain de Botton Alain de Botton is a well-respected English author and philosopher. As of today, he has written several best sellers such as Essays in Love and Status Anxiety. During the debate, Botton argued against the resolution â€Å"Be it resolved humankind’s best days lie ahead†. Although each debater brought valid arguments and unique perspectives to the resolution, out of the four, I believed that Botton’s debate was the weakest of all for a number of reasons. Botton starts off his debate by summarizing what he called the â€Å"4 main themes where optimists think they will make the largest gains† and proceeds to dispute them. His debate, although eloquent, and well organized, lacked strong evidence and support. Instead, it was more of a collection of questionable pieces of evidence, inapt analogies, and fallacies which ultimately led to its fauilure. One of the biggest reasons why Botton’s debate was so weak as compared to the other debaters’ is because of the perspective that he took. Botton based his arguments on a liberal arts perspective which consisted of mainly philosophical standpoints. In a nutshell, his main argument was that are genetically flawed creatures and because of these flaws we will never reach perfection and thus humanity’s best days cannot lie ahead. He believes in the â€Å"philosophy of pessimistic realism† and the â€Å"philosophy of wisdom†. Having a liberal arts perspective on the debate only weakened his stand against his opponent who took