What does the term Devils Advocate mean?

Answer 1

Devil's advocate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In common parlance, devil's advocate has come to mean a person who takes a position for the sake of argument (not necessarily believing in the argument); or who presents a counterargument for a position they do believe in, to another debater. This process can be used to test the quality of the original argument and identify weaknesses in its structure.

Origin
Formerly, during the canonization process of the Roman Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith (Latin Promotor Fidei), or Devil's Advocate (Latin advocatus diaboli), was a canon lawyer appointed by the Church to argue against the canonization of the candidate. It was his job to take a skeptical view of the candidate's character, to look for holes in the evidence, and to argue that any miracles attributed to the candidate were fraudulent, etc.

The office was established in 1587 and was abolished by Pope John Paul II in 1983. This abolition streamlined the canonization process considerably, helping John Paul II to usher in an unprecedented number of elevations: nearly 500 individuals were canonized and over 1,300 were beatified during his tenure as Pope as compared to only 98 canonizations by all his 20th-century predecessors.

Such a dramatic increase suggests that the office of the Devil's Advocate had served to reduce the number of canonizations by complicating the process. Some argue that it served a useful role in ensuring that canonizations did not proceed without due care and hence the status of sainthood was not easily achieved.

Use in popular culture
The Simpsons Episode "the Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" features a humourous literal misinterpretation of the term "playing Devil's Advocate". Homer asks Marge if he may do so, and when his wish is granted, the scene cuts to the Kwik-E-Mart, in which Homer is apparently losing a pinball game called "Devil's Advocate". After grunting "Stupid game!", he turns back and asks, "Now where were we?"

Hope that helps...

Answer 2

Diabolii Advocatus
The Devil's Lawyer

Answer 3

the Devil's Advocate is a person who argues for the evil side of things, or the bad choice in a situation. the person playing the devil's advocate is usually not seriously espousing that position, rather, it's used as a technique to study out a problem, all the ways of solving it, and the consequences of each choice.

Answer 4

Playing the devil's advocate is taking the opposite side of the debate, simply for argument's sake.

Answer 5

Originally it was a nickname for the person whose job it is to make the case *against* someone being make a saint in the Roman Catholic church.

So that if the Church was considering making me Saint UKJess, there would be someone whose job it was to collect the evidence and make the case for my beatification and someone else (the devil's advocate) whose job it was to point out why I shouldn't be a saint at all.

By extension from that, it now means making a case against something which is either generally held to be true or benefical.

Answer 6

It means you argue against what you yourself believe; you argue the opposite side of the position to where your views lie. If you are a pro-choice person, and you argue pro-life, you're being a devil's advocate. Usually it's done so that people who agree with you will practice thinking about how to explain their views.

Answer 7

When you start to support the opposite side of your arguement just to illustrate that your REAL side is still correct.

Example:

"Just playing Devils Advocate here, let's say that Global Warming does not exist, shouldn't we still want to have clean air and reduce our fuel consumption?"

Answer 8

Advocating an opposing point of view, not necessarily or so much because one believes it but to help the presenter flesh out and firm up their argumentation.

Answer 9

Someone who is like the devil's puppet in a situation... like acting or being like or of the devil. Taking more of an evil approach to a situation

Answer 10

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