The Devil's Advocate and... Advocating For the Devil
The moral case for trying to destroy your own opinion to make sure you know what you really think.
What makes you think you're right?
For all you know, other people might be right. You might have everything completely and utterly wrong. After all, other people care just as much about the things they believe and say as you do. Or from your perspective anyway, they could be. It's an extremely hard thing to figure out whether you are or not. Knowing requires an amount of certainty that very few people have. Usually the people who do are the kind of people who would do anything to make sure that no one disagrees with them. Almost to the point of murder, and in some cases they include murder in the things they're willing to do. Which makes going along with it the easier path, if not the right path.
If you did want to somehow figure out whether you're right, there are ways. Some people advocate for a scientific approach. Once you do the experiment and get a result, it's easy to tell who is and isn't right. When it comes to moral and ethical issues however, knowing what makes sense is a much more difficult process. There isn't really a test you can take. Maybe the closest thing to a test is to find out what other people think about it. To see if they also think you made the right choice. If you acted morally in the situation you found yourself in. But for all you know, they might simply think you're right because they would've done the same or because they'll get something out of it if they go along. So you still have the problem of whether or not you're right.
One of the other ways to figure out what the right decision might be is to advocate for the opposite. See if you had done the opposite or if you believed the opposite, would that be the better outcome? Would you feel better if you didn't? Being able to do that however is no easy thing. In order to really know the difference, you can't just advocate for the easiest and simplest version of the opposite. You have to be willing to truly make the best and most powerful argument against your decision. If you don't, then you're just looking to make yourself feel better. You have to be able to completely destroy everything you previously believed. Really destroy it. The same way that the devil might.
The Devil's Advocate is very much about the difficulty of being able to do that. Kevin Lomax, as played brilliantly by Keanu Reeves, is given every opportunity to choose otherwise. To make a different choice then the one he believes in. The people he's been asked to advocate for are clearly guilty of the crimes they're on trial for. It's not really in doubt. Yet he chooses to move forward anyway. He chooses to defend the clearly guilty and try to win the case regardless. Each time he does though, the path forward becomes less and less clear. The rightness of his position is harder and harder to believe in.
It gets the point that he simply can't do it anymore. He can't continue on the path he's chosen. Despite the fact that it's his job to go one way, he can't continue. Which is part of what makes The Devil's Advocate so fascinating to watch.
Do yourself a favour and learn the difficulty of advocating for the other side by checking out The Devil's Advocate as soon as you can.
Watch The Devil’s Advocate on Netflix and Amazon.
"You have to be willing to truly make the best and most powerful argument against your decision. If you don't, then you're just looking to make yourself feel better. You have to be able to completely destroy everything you previously believed. Really destroy it. The same way that the devil might." Those are powerful words!
It's important to have a well-rounded view about anything that requires critical thinking and objectivity. Mu husband oftentimes plays a devil's advocate. It annoys a lot of people. It annoyed me when I used to be more close-minded. But now I embrace that way of thinking.
THIS ARTICLE IS RIGHT ON THE MARK ! Similar to Socratic dialogue, only harsher. I always play devil's advocate and welcome other's critiques as a way of strengthening my own position .