On November 17, the SNU Faculty of Liberal Education hosted the final round of the 7th SNU Debate Competition (Building 61, Room 320). The Faculty of Liberal Education has hosted this competition annually since 2015, encouraging students to actively exchange their ideas on philosophical and social issues. For the event, faculty from diverse majors assemble every March to form a planning board and decide the topic of the debate. This year, the topic was “Is love necessary for a decent life?” 51 teams in total applied for the competition, and 16 of the teams made it to the finals.

On the day of the finals, the teams matched up in a tournament format, with the top two competing in the final match: Team Damda and Team LG. Professor Lee Jae-Young (Department of English Language and Literature) took the position of head judge. The other judges were Professor Kim Deogsu (Department of History Education), Professor Kim Hyeong Ryeol (Department of Ethics Education), Professor Song Yongsoo (Department of Computer Science and Engineering), and Professor Lee Yusun (Faculty of Liberal Education).

The Joy of Exchanging Opinions

Before the final match, Director Yu Jae Jun of the Faculty of Liberal Education and SNU President Oh Se-Jung spoke about the meaning of this competition. Director Yu hoped that through debating, students would be able to integrate their own ideas with those of others, through which they would be able to find solutions to academic problems. President Oh emphasized that the SNU Debate Competition is one of the key events that represents the university’s move towards discussion-based learning. “Many issues of the world have no definite answer, so they need to be answered through a multi-perspective approach. This shows the increasing need to move towards discussion-based education instead of one characterized by rote memorization,” he said.

The Final Match of the 7th SNU Debate Competition

Students from Team Damda, the affirmative team, asserted that love is a prerequisite for a decent life. They argued that love is needed for both biological reasons (“Love is a precondition of human survival and evolution.”) and psychological reasons (“Love provides room for self-reflection.”). Contrarily, students from Team LG, the opposition team, stressed that every individual has their own criteria of a good life, and love does not have to be in it all the time. They mentioned the protagonists of La La Land, who found happiness not by searching for love but by pursuing their dream, showing that one can achieve a decent life even without love. Furthermore, they talked about Werther, of The Sorrows of Young Werther, who ultimately committed suicide due to his excessive preoccupation with his lover, persuading the audience that people may turn out to be miserable due to love.

This year’s final round was held both online and offline. The staff and the judges participated in the event offline, and the audience watched the debate live on Zoom. After the debate, 30 minutes were given for the audience to share their thoughts on the overall debate, with Professor Kim Jongyoung (Faculty of Liberal Education) as the moderator. Student Choi Jongho (Department of Physics and Astronomy) shared his opinion that nowadays, the significance of love is diminishing in our society, and that the debate was a meaningful opportunity to think about what true love is or should be in modern society.

An Opportunity to Learn to Listen Attentively and Contemplate Upon Ourselves

Five professors and twenty students adjudicated the final debate. By a close margin, Team Damda received the grand prize and a two-million-won reward. Team LG was awarded the second prize with a million-won reward. Professor Lee Jae-Young, the head judge of the day, assessed that both teams listened attentively and responded respectfully to each other’s claims. “I hope this competition becomes a starting point for personal and academic contemplation on what a desirable life should be like,” he added. Vice Director Choi Yun-Young of the Faculty of Liberal Education was impressed by the many original arguments of the contestants. “However, students should improve on effectively utilizing the opponents’ points to refine their own arguments,” she said.

Yoon Seongbae (Department of Communication) of Team Damda was an audience member for the first SNU Debate Competition six years ago, when he was a freshman. At that time, he had hoped that one day he would participate in the event again as a contestant. Six years later, not only was he able to participate, but he did so as a member of the team that won the grand prize. “Debating gave me room to enhance my overall thinking, and I thank my teammates for supporting me so far,” he said.

The 7th SNU Debate Competition was an event where SNU members were able to cultivate the desirable communication skills as a democratic citizen and think over the fundamental questions in life. Let us look forward to next year’s debate, and see what other creative ideas will traverse the debating venue.

Source: https://www.snu.ac.kr/snunow/snu_story?md=v&bbsidx=134517
Written by Seunghwan Oh, SNU English Editor, ascendhwan@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Professor Travis Smith, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, tlsmith@snu.ac.kr