"A debate as a collaboration to find the truth" Any clash of ideas could have any number of purposes, and of all the garden variety reasons to engage in one, t

"A debate as a collaboration to find the truth" Any clash of ideas could have any number of purposes, and of all the garden variety reasons to engage in one, this must be one of the lesser ones. Anecdotally I would rank the commonality of reasons to debate as: 1- Getting something out of it 2- Sharpening your teeth to achieve #1 later 3- Escalating a situation 4- For the kicks of it. (some personalities just love it) To find out the truth you have much better options than getting into conversation with an adversarial position.