we should debate issues of the highest practicality

Thank you for accepting the challenge and I also look forward to this and many more debates. In response to your first contention: I don't think I ever spoke out against general philosophy " I said philosophy is "fun and necessary as a foundation to build your own philosophy on." I don't mean to understate the importance of thinking about a wide range of issues of seemingly various importance " only to emphasize the empowerment of creating positive social change in the context of a world increasingly focused on vague ideas of education and entertainment that let debate's usefulness falter. This emphasis for change seems to be overshadowed by a vague notion of doing what you love and believing in yourself (in america), despite a declining reason for us americans, who are in a mental downfall as a whole, to have this self confidence and lavish ourselves with this freedom to care about and do just about whatever we want. In order to understand the general point I am trying to make, look at the topics being debated on this website. Most if not all of them have little to no emphasis on creating an impact through the debate. A random sampling of debates now shows people debating the best general in ww2, eating meat being bad, restaurants needing to include calories on menus, existence of pagan gods, etc " none of these are debating how to change things. Rather they are mostly debating things that would better be settled by a study of historical literature or even common sense. Debate used to be more practical than this, I think " and it can be that way again. Look at the very nature of this site " rather than emphasizing bringing people together to debate things in the context of directly changing the things being debated with the realizations that are gained, it leaves the value of debate open to interpretation. Instead of trying to encourage debate between politicians that will force them to get to the bottom of things by not allowing them to lie or stop debating " instead of trying to connect the process of debate to the process of social change, we are content to let it's reputation and usefulness stagnate as primarily entertainment " since this is the entertainment nation. Or look at politics " look at how much people pay attention to/debate federal politics, where they have very little control, compared to local politics where they have a lot. Yes debate for the sake of debate is fine, but we need debate for the sake of change. We need empowerment in a world where people are continually losing control over their lives. Even our medium of communication " something that should be sacred - is being slowly usurped by telecomm companies as we spend more time on our phones and online. And yes you can argue that Everything is a matter of general philosophy, which I never argued against, but you almost must keep in mind what guides our general philosophy. To rephrase the summary/title of this " I should say that practicality infused with social consciousness should guide us in all of our contemplations " whether they be deciding on what president we like or what our favorite color is or what toiletpaper to buy. Sorry for procrastinating on the response. I look forward to yours.