There’s a point in debates where if you know the subject well enough, it’s tempting to argue entirely with citations, since most questions have been studied at least a bit. This is the point where map obscures territory and it’s smarter to eschew citations in favor of 1st pples.
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It is important though to argue from first principles with sophistication, otherwise there’s no distinguishing you from people who can’t cite to begin with. ‘Simplicity on the other side of complexity” etc.
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In fact the ability to outargue people who *don’t* know the literature, *without* referencing the literature is a good test of whether you’ve actually mastered the ideas or just the citation graph and keywords/cliches.
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