True Philosophers Debate

Let it be said that all throughout the course of the history of wise men and philosophers, there have been many people whose philosophies and research did not agree with one another. These men of learning took their areas of expertise seriously. They would often discuss and sometimes argue about their findings amongst one another.

With men being men and many of us coming from very violent cultures, even the wise philosophers could get animalistic at times and these arguments over knowledge and who was right or wrong would at times lead to a real physical fight, and even murder.

Examples of educated men fighting one another to the death and or killing one another can be found all throughout history. In 1804, a gun duel was held in Weehawken, New Jersey, between U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr who was in the last full year of his single term as Vice President, against his long-time political antagonist and former Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton who was the leading Federalist and the chief architect of America’s political economy. Burr won the battle by shooting Hamilton who died the following day.

He was never prosecuted for the crime of murder because it was akin to a mutually agreed upon street fight between two grown men, but with guns. Thankfully today our politicians do not kill one another over their disagreements, and we can watch the candidates for U.S. Presidency debate live on national TV.

Another example of the history of debates that I can give you would be the infamous early battles of Gnosis, who was God and Jesus between the early Church Fathers and Doctors against the various Greek Hellene Gnostic Schools of the Time. These battles of wisdom, words, wits and reason are some of the most extensive and well documented debates in the course of human history. This was a time when these battling wise Christians and Gnostic philosophers wrote whole books that were based on debating and arguing each other points. If their books did not get the message across, often these disagreements led to war, murder and genocide.

After all, many of these men were some of the world’s most powerful who were not only well-trained in their fields of expertise, but they were also great writers and speakers who had been taught from very early ages the skills of logic, reason, rhetoric and all forms of philosophy. Many of their families were from the royal class and or their father’s high-ranking military and political officials. While the Spartan slaves and other warrior clans learned to fight or create commercial goods, these men of learning would learn to read, write and reason. Where the other clans perfected the use of their hands to murder their foes, and make wares to sell on the market, the philosopher tribes fine tuned their mind Jedi skills to defeat their foes before they had to raise a hand.

Over time in Ancient Greece, these philosophical skills would be challenged, tested and men would simply fight one another because at first these disagreements were not managed and or properly conducted. This is where we get the word debate which  means a formal discussion on a particular topic in a public meeting or legislative assembly, in which opposing arguments are put forward. Essentially, a debate is for two people who do not agree can argue their opinions in a professional arena to be judged by the onlookers.

This is called the professionalism of arguing about knowledge amongst men who have different points of view. In almost every facet of our modern society, you will see various forms of the original rules of debating incorporated into our lives. This is where we get the word “forum” from. It was in the Greek and Roman public forums where people would debate and or express their grievances.

Also our legal was built upon the simple premise of the debate. When a person is convicted of a crime, a defense attorney and prosecutor argue their facts in front of a judge and sometimes jury of 12 who then decide the fate of the defendant based on these arguments. Corporate business meetings can also be used in the same fashion to hash out ideas, plane and debate them live amongst employees.

These debates and formal word fights of knowledge then led to the sport of boxing and UFC where two trash talking man fighters can step in a ring (stage) to argue with their hands and fists to see who is the best fighter by a panel of judges who decide who is the best.

Wit that said, any true philosopher (a word meaning a lover of wisdom), and follower of truth who is worth his or her salt will never back down to a debate about their work. In fact, they invite it. Also, if needed be, they have no problem refute someone elses’ work that they know is promoting lies, false teachings and history with falsities.

The only people who refuse to have honest and open debate about their work when challenged whether that be in writing, in person or in audio are those people who have something to hide and or know they will be proven wrong. It is only the false authors and liars who wish to mislead the ignorant that claim that we should all play nice and just get along when the facts are that any true philosopher and truth teller will welcome any and all opposition to his teachings in order to test his knowledge against the best of the best.

With that said, anytime anyone who would like to have a friendly debate with me over my work and or anything that I write whether it be in person, a video, podcast, writing or whatever, I would be more than obliged to take you up on your offer.