I never liked the word "debate" in that, in one sense, a debate is a competitive sport practiced in academic settings. You get assigned a position which you may or may not agree and you "win" or "lose" based on what a third party thinks about your performance. It's not about resolving disagreements.
Last time I was in that kind of debate my partner was up in Syracuse supporting a friend who'd gotten stabbed when he tried to break up a fight. I ended up presenting his argument with his slides along with my own -- it was easy because we'd prepared together and attended a great lecture on the topic together. My actual position, as opposed to my assigned position, was that we were arguing about an artificial dichotomy.
I never liked the word "debate" in that, in one sense, a debate is a competitive sport practiced in academic settings. You get assigned a position which you may or may not agree and you "win" or "lose" based on what a third party thinks about your performance. It's not about resolving disagreements.
Last time I was in that kind of debate my partner was up in Syracuse supporting a friend who'd gotten stabbed when he tried to break up a fight. I ended up presenting his argument with his slides along with my own -- it was easy because we'd prepared together and attended a great lecture on the topic together. My actual position, as opposed to my assigned position, was that we were arguing about an artificial dichotomy.
See also
https://depts.washington.edu/fammed/wp-content/uploads/2018/...