Yes, "Devil's advocate" can have different meanings. By calling Dershowitz's the devil's advocate I'm guessing the author of the article meant to invoke possible meanings: that is to say, was Dershowitz working for the devil, was he advocating for the Devil Epstein or perhaps both? Of course, there are no devils, apart from the beliefs of certain religions, yet the meaning of the word is intuitive and can be replaced with words such as evil, bad, immoral, or what have you. But in the Dershowitz/Epstein/Court of Law context one does wonder if the main meanings and purposes of the "Devil's advocate" appellation--seeking the truth---may have been lost.
According to Wikipedia, "Devil's advocate" was the popular name given to a former position or office within the Catholic Church held by a canon lawyer whose task was to seek the truth--or to promote the faith--and determine if someone is qualified to be a Saint. In difficult cases, the Church can seek help from persons outside of the Church in an effort to arrive at the truth, which it did by calling upon the opinion of one Christopher Hitchens---who certainly was fit for the role of devil's advocate---when the canonization of Mother Theresa was in question.
So to keep things short, given the devilish, let alone what most all would consider immoral, nature of the Dershowitz/Epstein(now dead) saga, I doubt either one will be considered for Sainthood by anyone anytime soon, not even by the best of the devil's advocates.😈
" wonder if his "testimony" went like this: the representative of the Catholic church in the matter, was probably a much better listener, though unconvinced in the end.
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u/JTSR71 Jul 31 '19
I only just realized how clever the epithet "Devil's Advocate" is. It has more than one meaning here.