Thursday, June 28: Embracing the Positional Take-Out

On Thursday, the students in the BC lab began the morning session by flowing an affirmative case from the 2005 TOC elims. They then had a few minutes to prepare the first part of a rebuttal, which focused exclusively on undermining the viability of the case position as a whole. In other words, students were discouraged from focusing on specific arguments in the constructive and found success by distancing themselves from the flow. Though some students were initially unfamiliar with this type of refutation, all of them left lab with a better understanding of layering their argumentation. During the afternoon, students were given more time to research in the library, revise their cases, and work on preparing answers to common positions. In the evening session, the lab participated in a lively discussion of the nuances and ethics associated with the cutting process. Though it was his birthday, Rahim "The Dream" Sayani certainly didn't take the day off; in fact, he gave an excellent positional take-out speech and made John Rawls proud by vigorously defending the truth of A Theory of Justice.