Diaboli advocate
The Latin expression Advocatus Diaboli , German lawyer of the devil , stands for the rhetorical strategy of a lawyer , or more generally that of a speaker who consciously takes the position of his opponent in a rhetorical argument.
Advocatus Diaboli means, in the narrower sense of the word , a church attorney whose task it is to contest the collected evidence and arguments for the canonization in a canonization process or to put forward one's own arguments against it. The counterpart as advocates took over traditionally an advocate Dei ( "advocate of God").
In a more general rhetorical sense, the strategy can be pursued to the best of our knowledge and belief, i.e. with the serious intention of reconstructing an opposing lawyer (opponent in the dispute). Ultimately, this includes the possibility of surrender, open-ended. On the other hand, from a biased position , it can also serve a priori to ultimately refute the other side, i.e. categorically exclude surrender.
The former, the serious understanding of the opposing arguments, is a method for serious truth-finding. An example would be a staunch Marxist who seriously and conscientiously asks himself what Margaret Thatcher , for example , would define as "the good" that she ultimately pursues with her policies, given that everyone, no matter what they do, ultimately does something Strives for "good" with it. In doing so, he does not rule out the possibility of even reaching a pro-Thatcher conviction. The latter, i.e. the enumeration of counter-arguments for purely rhetorical reasons, happens from the outset only polemically - apparently, contrary to a conviction; a train of thought is presented which, despite the advocate diaboli position, has already reached a point of view.
Often one also finds the wrong designation advocatus diabolus or advocatus diabolicus . Diabolus is incorrectly declined (nominative instead of genitive), whereas diabolicus means "the devil".
Usage
The rhetorical stylistic device can be used to sharpen the arguments of one's own position with regard to possible counter-arguments (of the advocatus diaboli). During debates, taking the position of the advocate diaboli can also be used for targeted provocation .
In the field of education , this method is used to give learners practice in expressing an opinion. This teaching method is particularly valid in the social science area.
For learners of professions in which the validity of arguments and evidence is particularly important ( law , science , mathematics ), the development of an “inner” advocatus diaboli is a protection against loss of objectivity through errors such as overestimation of oneself , operational blindness and others , an indispensable part of professional training.
Devil's Advocacy Technique
Devil's Advocacy is based on the principle of the advocate diaboli. It is a technique from work and organizational psychology that is used to counteract the biased search for information in the context of judgment and decision-making processes in groups. In the Devil's advocacy technique, one randomly selected member of the group assumes the role of devil's advocate ( English devil's advocate ), whose job it is to criticize suggestions of the group. When everyone has agreed on a solution, the Devil's Advocate takes counter-arguments to this solution and tries to identify associated weaknesses. The group must then respond to the criticism and see whether the arguments put forward by the Devil's Advocate can be refuted. After this check, the initially proposed solution is either selected or rejected.
Procedure / procedure
- The group discusses the decision problem and suggests the preferred alternative.
- The Devil's Advocate's job is to identify all of the disadvantages of this alternative. He reviews the group proposal for possible errors and incorrect assumptions.
- The Devil's Advocate presents his criticism to the other group members.
- The group jointly analyzes additional information reports that could be important for the final group decision.
- A final group decision is made on the basis of these analyzes.
target
The devil's advocacy technique represents a form of artificial disagreement ( English contrived dissent ). It serves to counteract the bias in the search for information in group decision-making processes (see groupthink (section Advocatus Diaboli) ). The technique is used particularly in homogeneous groups, as the search for counter-arguments is encouraged here.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elmar Güthoff : promoter of justice . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 5 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1996, Sp. 1509 .
- ↑ See Reinhardt, Sibylle: Politikdidaktik. Practical handbook for secondary level I and II. Cornelsen, Berlin, 2014, p. 31
literature
To the Advocatus Diaboli
- Elmar Güthoff : Advocatus . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 1 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1993, Sp. 175-176 .
To the Devil's Advocacy Technique
- Bierhoff, Hans-Werner (2006): Social Psychology. A textbook . 6th edition Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
- Schulz-Hardt, Stefan; Jochims, Marc; Frey, Dieter (2002): Productive conflict in group decision making: genuine and contrived dissent as strategies to counteract biased information seeking. In: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 88 (2), pp. 563-586.
