Big Questions Debate Topics

Big Questions is NSDA's philosophy-of-everything format. One resolution per year. Topics span science, religion, consciousness, free will, and ethics. The format is one-on-one with no judge paradigms — you have to make the philosophy accessible.

The format

BQ is unique in that you debate both sides over the course of a tournament. Speeches are short (5/4/3/3 minutes) and the language has to stay clear — your opponent could be a coach, a parent, or a former judge from any other format. No jargon, no spreading, no theory.

Aff (physicalism) framings

• Functionalism. Mental states are defined by their causal roles — input, internal state, output. If you can replicate the function, you've replicated the mental state. Lewis, Putnam, Dennett.
• Eliminative materialism. Folk-psychology categories like "belief" and "desire" don't carve nature at the joints. Future neuroscience will replace them with physical predicates. Churchland.
• Identity theory. Mental states ARE brain states, full stop. Pain just is C-fiber firing. Smart, Place.
• Higher-order theory. Consciousness is what happens when a brain represents its own representations. Rosenthal.

Neg (anti-physicalism) framings

• The hard problem. Chalmers — physical processes explain function but not phenomenal experience. Why is there something it is like to be a brain in pain?
• Mary's Room. Jackson — Mary the color scientist knows every physical fact about red but learns something new when she sees red. Therefore not all facts are physical.
• Zombies. Conceivability of philosophical zombies (functional duplicates without consciousness) shows phenomenal properties are non-physical.
• Property dualism. Mental properties supervene on physical properties but aren't reducible to them.

Past Big Questions topics