Jeremy (64):
I must begin by admitting that I do not competely understand everything in your post. I plan to give it more thought, but in the meantime I would like to explain where I see the value in philosophical discussion and the best way to go about it.
First of all, I believe that philosophy is all about obtaining knowledge, because knowledge is useful for a number of reasons. (Ultimately, it is one of several things that helps us to achieve our primary goals of survival and happiness.) And, I believe that the end goal of philosophical discussion should be obtaining knowledge.
I believe that philosophical discussion (or debate) should be an attempt to examine and find the answers (if possible, or at least to get people thinking in that direction) to questions - generally questions where the participants in the discussion do not agree on the answers. The participants in the discussion should clearly explain their positions so that the others may examine them. It is generally best for each of the participants to present their answer in the form of a proposition, explain their proposition if necessary, present an argument to support their proposition if necessary, and explain any of the terms that they are using if necessary. Once any of the participants has presented an argument to support their proposition the other participants are free to examine the validity and the soundness of that argument to determine if it actually supports the proposition that it is intended to. Throughout that process it is often necessary for people to provide further explanation to clarify their proposition and their argument with the intention of having the person who is examining them truly understand what they are saying. The goal of this whole process is to get to the correct answer (if possible) by proving that other answers are incorrect (or to reject them because they are not adequately supported). Sometimes people do actually convince other people that their answers are incorrect by correctly identifying the flaws in their reasoning which led them to accepting those answers.