devil's advocate

     

In common parlance, a evil's advocate is someone who takes a position for the sake of argument. This process can be used to test the quality of the original argument and identify weaknesses in its structure.

Trivia about devil's advocate

  • John Paul II has eliminated this position whose duty was to present arguments against sainthood
  • Someone who takes the opposite side of an argument for argument's sake is "advocatus diaboli", or this
  • It's a person who argues an unpopular cause for the sake of argument
  • In the Catholic Church, this person presented the reasons why someone should not be canonized
  • As Satanic lawyer John Milton, Al Pacino tries to corrupt Keanu Reeves in this movie