Hello, I’m Pang Ying. Welcome to Episode 15 of Think Like a Debater.

A classic match at the 2001 International Varsity Debate asked:Is money the root of all evil?Wuhan University took the affirmative and the University of Malaya the opposition.

Wuhan’s position was that money is the root of all evil.

They argued:

First, money can lawfully exchange for any commodity. Its seemingly unlimited power arouses unlimited greed.

Second, money not only dominates commodities but turns noncommodities into commodities. It symbolizes material wealth and becomes a bargaining chip for spiritual values: power and status are purchased, human dignity is priced, and conscience smells of coins.

Third, worship of money alienates the relationship between people and money.Money began as a tool, but people worship it as an end. Human worth and dignity become sacrifices on the altar of mammon.

How did Malaya respond?

The word ‘all’ means every instance. If money causes only some evils, it is not the root of all evil. Many evils involve money, but domestic violence, sexual assault, school shootings, and genocide may not. People do evil for money, power, status, ignorance, or hatred.Calling money the root of all evil therefore generalizes from a part to the whole.

The affirmative replied: we need prove only that money produces extremely numerous and varied evils, not every evil. We checked major Chinese dictionaries; wan, literally ten thousand, never means ‘all.’ Is the opposition using pirated copies? Piracy itself is an evil caused by money!

The opposition answered: you quote out of context. In the phrase ‘root of ten thousand evils,’ wan means all. Idioms, proverbs, and dictionaries tell us the phrase means the source of every evil.

The affirmative produced a thick dictionary: wan has nine definitions here, and none is ‘all.’ Check it yourselves!

The match became famous as a battle over definitions.

For ‘root,’ the opposition asked: when someone craves money, is the root the craving or the money? Is it the external temptation or the internal reason one yields? If temptation counts as the root of all evil, humans also crave sex, food, and sleep. Are sex, eating, and sleeping all roots of evil?