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Immanuel Can
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Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:42 pm

Re: To Immanuel Can

Post by Immanuel Can »

Gary Childress wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 10:55 pm From what I notice of most discussions in philosophy, they are indeed contests, contests between wills that don't agree on things.
That's kind of right, Gary. They're supposed to be two people bringing their best arguments about different sides of an issue, and if both have the grace to do it, it's supposed to result in an improved position for both -- whether or not they end up agreeing.

Put that way, it's ideally a kind of co-operative debate from which both can prosper. Unfortunately, if nothing more than will or ego gets involved, it can degenerate into mere verbal pugilism, with nobody learning anything. Or it can decline into really stupid stuff, like ad hominems, rhetorical flourishes, lies, and even cheap personal slams. Those kinds of debates end up doing nobody any good.

So it's always a risk: you hope your partner understands the idea of a cooperative debate, or at the very least, is fairly reasonable, honest and polite. On that score, sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes you don't.
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