What’s the Point of Philosophical Debates?

[Dyske Suematsu]

I recently attended a gathering of philosophers organized through a website. Although they were all interested in philosophy, I felt like each of them came from a different planet. They spent most of the two-hour meeting defining their own terms, and no real debate or discussion took place. I don’t think it was just me who felt this way; one of them described it as “going around in circles”. Despite the fact that they all proved their own intelligence and depth of knowledge in the field, nothing meaningful or relevant came out of the meeting. In fact, it was so painful that I started to wonder how a meeting about my favorite subject could be so boring.

http://dyske.com/paper/1023