You’ve made the argument. You know where it’s strong, you’ve answered the obvious objections, and you can see why someone would accept it.
Then someone asks, “Okay, but do you agree with it?”
If you study law or spend a lot of time debating, that can be a different question from the one you’ve been answering. You might know how to defend a position before you’ve decided whether you support it.
Being able to argue either side is useful. It can expose a weakness in your first reaction and help you understand an opponent. The difficulty comes when you keep preparing arguments and never give yourself a separate moment to decide what you think.
In classroom debate generally, participants may choose or be assigned sides, as Harvard's teaching guidance describes. That educational format is one reason a person's performance should not automatically be treated as their personal endorsement.
Decide which question you’re answering
Several questions can get mixed together: What does the law permit? What could someone persuasively argue? What outcome would be fair? What rule should apply next time?
Your answers can differ without being contradictory. You might think an outcome follows from the current rule and still believe the rule should change. You might feel sympathetic toward someone while believing their legal argument is weak.
Before deciding where you stand, write down the question in ordinary language. If you keep moving between legal interpretation and personal judgment, say so. Otherwise, you can end up defending an answer to a question nobody is currently asking.
Try writing your view without preparing the defence
Away from a class or competition, finish this sentence privately: “Given what I know, I would support this outcome because…”
Then explain what bothers you about your own answer. Don’t immediately rescue it. If the outcome costs someone something, name that cost. If your position depends on a fact you’re unsure of, name the fact.
This is a way to see what you’re committing to when you stop describing the available arguments and choose among them. You can still revise the choice.
It may also show that you don’t have a position yet. That’s more useful than mistaking your ability to produce an answer for confidence in the answer itself.
Check what happens when the people change
Suppose your preferred rule benefits someone you dislike and disadvantages someone you identify with. Would you still support it?
If your answer changes, ask what changed with it. There might be a morally relevant difference in the situation. There might also be a preference you hadn’t noticed. The purpose of the question is to find out which, not to catch yourself being imperfect.
Then ask what evidence or consequence would make you reconsider. “Nothing” is worth pausing over. So is a condition so vague that you’d never know whether it had been met.
Choose a question you cannot settle by performing a better argument
Where do you think a reasonable rule produces an outcome you find uncomfortable?
Which disagreement depends on different values rather than missing information?
Try one question at a time. Explain the consequence or value you find difficult, and ask what someone else would weigh differently.
Have a conversation where you can revise your answer
You can tell another person what kind of exchange would help: “I can make the case for either side, but I’m trying to decide which one I support.” That gives them a different role from simply trying to defeat your position.
You might want them to question a premise, suggest a missing fact, or explain why they weigh the consequences differently.
Boundaries still matter. Do not reproduce identifiable classmates' statements, confidential material, or client information in public writing. You can discuss your own reaction without exposing someone else.
On Sinapsis, you can write about the part you haven’t settled and continue the conversation privately with someone who responds. You don’t need to arrive with a finished position.
You already know how to defend an answer. It’s worth giving yourself time to find an answer you want to defend.