Today, somewhat like the old debates, LD focuses on the conflicting values of social and philosophical issues, rather than policy issues.
For example, LD debate seeks to examine questions of morality, justice, democracy, etc.
Typically, LD debates concern themselves with deciding whether or not certain actions, or states of affairs, are good or bad, right or wrong, moral or immoral.
As evidenced by the adversarial nature of debate, there are two sides to each debate, and these are known as the Affirmative and the Negative. The affirmative debater upholds, affirms, or agrees with the resolution. Their job is to present arguments in order to persuade the judge that the resolution is true. The negative debater, on the other hand, disagrees with the resolution and presents arguments to persuade the judge that the resolution is false. We'll examine how each side of the debate is constructed in upcoming lessons.