Debate and personal epistemologies: exploring the historical controversy of encouraging relativism

Abstract

This paper engages in the historical controversy regarding the role attributed to Debate in the development of personal epistemologies of its participants. Specifically, it challenges the stillfelt criticism that Debate promotes a relativistic attitude. This defense is conducted by developing the argument that the relativistic approach, due to its social and epistemological implications, is
pedagogically preferable to the naively realistic or dogmatic conceptions from which the criticisms of Debate themselves originate.