Curriculum: Lincoln-Douglas Third Week Program
NSD's new third week program is designed to focus on developing debaters in two main areas: their knowledge and understanding of moral and political philosophy, and their ability in theory debate, or debate about the rules of debate. The third week program will also include a section designed for students to continue developing their technical and speaking skills in daily drills. All students will attend all three sections of the camp. NSD third week is designed for students who have attended the first two weeks of camp – it is not a stand alone program for students who have not yet attended camp this summer.
Philosophy Curriculum
NSD's third week philosophy section will be led by Eric Palmer in conjunction with Daniel Moerner and Marshall Thompson. Eric is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, one of the world's leading programs in Philosophy, and brings to the class experience as a teaching assistant at the university.
The general focus of the third week philosophy section will be on working through texts in contemporary moral and political philosophy. Students will read and discuss works by Christine Korsgaard, Stephen Engstrom, Michael Thompson, Philippa Foot, Arthur Ripstein, David Gauthier, and others, and we will consider how philosophical considerations bear on issues like rights, equality, international justice, distribution of resources, warfare, punishment and criminal justice, the justification of political authority, and the structure of governmental institutions. In addition, we will treat more abstract topics such as the nature and justification of moral judgments, rationality, and the structure of moral rules.
Additionally, we will ask students to work on developing framework arguments and standards analysis based on the topics we consider. Students will also work on developing a body of evidence and arguments to be used in replying to various views in moral and political philosophy. This is so students learn how to apply philosophical work to improve their cases and arguments, rather than just learning about philosophy in the abstract.
Theory Curriculum
In recent years, Lincoln-Douglas debate has seen an explosion of interest in arguments about the "theory" of debate, or what its rules should be. This aspect of debate has been largely imported from Policy debate with little regard for how considerations familiar to theory discussions in Policy should be modified in order to engage with the specific characteristics of Lincoln-Douglas debate.
The aim of our third week theory section is to rectify this problem. Our initiative is spearheaded by Ari Parker, current head coach of Walt Whitman high school and former coach of Glenbrook North. Ari has considerable experience with both Policy and Lincoln-Douglas debate, but his primary interest has always been in Lincoln-Douglas. This gives him a unique vantage point from which to see what is useful to take from Policy theory practice for Lincoln-Douglas, without falling into the trap of importing views from Policy that do not make real contact with the practice of Lincoln-Douglas debate.
In addition to giving substantial coverage to the details of theory debates, we will devote substantial time to engaging with questions about the general nature of Lincoln-Douglas debate (e.g. truth-testing vs. plan-focused debate) and concerning the mechanics of theory debates (e.g. "reasonability" vs. "competing interpretations"). In both cases, we will look for better alternatives to currently accepted models for how to approach theory debates. We will also devote substantial time to developing the skills to implement theory debates and write arguments and positions for them.
Speaking Skills
Each day of the third week, students will be led in speaking drills by instructors who will give them feedback on their performance. This is in part to build on what students have accomplished in the earlier weeks of camp, but it also affords students with an opportunity to practice implementing the new knowledge they build in the other sections of the third week program.
