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The catalog/Debate

The Arguments

The case for and the case against a proposition, each made as strongly as the evidence allows.

2 credits·in-depth·about 2–4 min·12 domains

What it answers

The question The Arguments is built for

State the proposition. It makes the case for it and the case against it in their strongest forms, isolates what the question turns on, says what each side must concede, reads where the evidence points, and records the common ground and the questions still open.

Who reaches for it

Students, debaters, editors and anyone preparing to argue a point who wants the other side made properly first.

What comes back

11 sections, on every run

These are the headings the result renders, read from the same promise the form makes before you spend a credit. A section that depends on what the record holds is rendered when it can be and never promised here.

01

The proposition

02

Brief

03

The Case For

04

The Case Against

05

Strongest case for

06

Strongest case against

07

What It Turns On

08

What Each Side Must Concede

09

Where the Evidence Points

10

Common Ground

11

Open Questions

What you give it

2 boxes, 1 required

The proposition to argue (phrase it neutrally)
required · up to 300 characters
Framing / what's at issue
optional · up to 600 characters
Try it on: a subject you already hold an opinion about, so you can grade the result against what you know. Each one opens the form filled, in the General domain.
Should democracies buy Pegasus-style spyware?
What it will not do

The lines it holds

It steelmans, it does not adjudicate. The read of where the evidence points is graded like every other claim, and a side with no documented case is not given an invented one.

Every claim carries its grade

A claim the scan could not source is marked as such rather than dressed up. How the grades work →

Verified or grounded
Reported or attributed
Contested
Open question
Where it runs

Available in 12 domains

A domain may name it in its own words and price it on its own terms; each row is what that domain shows.

General2 creditsDefense2 creditsFinance2 creditsEnergy2 creditsHealth2 creditsPolicy2 creditsTechnology2 creditsClimate2 creditsLearning2 creditsSportsas The Debate2 creditsTravel2 creditsLifestyle2 credits
See one

Research already published as The Arguments

Shifting DoD Weapons Programs to Fixed-Price Contracts

Read the research →

The weight of evidence favors fixed-price for mature, well-understood production work and cautions strongly against it for programs carrying significant technical or requirements immaturity — a distinction the 2026 Executive…

Defense · September 24, 2026

Is Enterprise AI Investment Already Delivering Measurable Earnings Returns?

Read the research →

The weight of the current evidence favors the skeptical reading of the proposition as stated: McKinsey's flat 6% high-performer share and 37% any-impact share, corroborated directionally by MIT's independent pilot-failure…

Technology · September 20, 2026

Is the teacher shortage a production problem or a retention problem?

Read the research →

The weight of the evidence favors a genuinely interdependent diagnosis rather than a clean win for either side: the supply-side contraction of the 2010s is real and well-documented, but California's finding that attrition…

Learning · September 16, 2026
Roles that lean on it

3 role guides suggest it

Policy analystPodcast host / producer, analysisPublic affairs director
Try it

Run The Arguments on something you already know

The fastest way to judge the result is to pick a subject you know cold and read it against what you know. The scan names its credit cost before it runs.

Start with The Arguments →Plans and credit packs
More in the catalog

Other research in debate

PositionsWho supports a proposition, who opposes it, and what the fault lines and the common ground are.The whole catalog →