Debates are useful and essential for a civilised society

Just begin, I will state here that I will cite all my sources at the end a reference list as I believe the last round (the conclusion) will be the shortest in content. I wish my opponent the best of luck: I hope this is an informative and lively debate in which I am eagerly anticipating. Thank you for accepting and I hope those reading it enjoy it too. Just so we are clear of the definitions: debating: to cite the Oxford English Dictionary; is 'a formal discussion on a particular matter in a public meeting or legislative assembly, in which opposing arguments are put forward and which usually ends with a vote'. I am here to argue not only are such practices useful for society, but also essential. Then to define the key terms in the debate: useful and essential. To cite the Oxford English Dictionary "useful: is able to be used for a practical purpose [or in several ways]". And "essential" means that "[absolutely necessary]; extremely important:" So what I will be trying to show is that debates are not only useful, that they are a practical means of discussing opposing views; but that it is extremely important to discuss some of the most profound questions and issues in order to develop as not only as individuals, but as a species. Just as a background to why I thought that this would be an interesting topic to discuss I will try and explain why I came to this topic. I was reading a debate called "Do unicorns exist?" in which someone was trying to debate whether such a creature exists. Reading this I began to wonder: why do we debate anything? For me what is perhaps one of the most wonderful things about being human is the fact we are able to converse with one-another. That because we are able to speak and express ourselves we are able to talk to each other about the things we hold dear to ourselves. To begin, I wish to journey back to 70,000 years ago, in South Africa. This is perhaps the time and the place in which humans "began to think" was it was discovered by Richard Klein believes art is a landmark in human evolution. And it was during a dig in 2002 in Blombos cave, situated in South Africa, stones were discovered engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns, dated to some 70,000 years ago. This suggested to some researchers that early Homo sapiens were capable of abstraction and production of abstract art or symbolic art. In order to understand this we must discover what it means to be human. Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) emerged in Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. We know from fossil evidence that Homo sapiens replaced other hominids around them and moved out of Africa into Asia and the Middle East, reaching Europe 40,000 years ago. No other animals, after all, are able to define a painting as anything other than a collection of colours and shapes. This ability is unique to humans. Art defines humans as behaviourally modern, and its beginning must coincide with the ability to speak and use language. If someone has the imagination to devise a shared way to describe their environment using art then it seems inconceivable that they could not possess language and speech. Because of this remarkable discovery it began to make me wonder: what actually makes us human? For me, I think it is our ability to debate: that for it is of paramount that we should live in world which values the sharing of different views about topics which we hold dear to ourselves. That if we lived in a world in which we just accepted different opinions without discussing them, then as a species we would stagnate and retard ourselves intellectually rather than confront our differences but at the same try to reconcile our differences to create a better society. I believe it is vital for society to value the sharing of opinions and discussing not only what we agree with, but what we disagree with. In doing so we are then able to share common ground as we will be able to see perspectives from different views and so this means we have intellectual honesty in that we know why others believe the way they do. For me, without debates we become isolated and ignorant about other people"s view and perspectives. That without an event in which both sides of a view then there is no platform to discuss these ideas, concepts or questions and so give us the tools to make informed decisions based on both sides of the discussion. Without such events as the 1860 Oxford evolution debate, between Huxley and Wilberforce, without Lincoln"Douglas Debates of 1858 or Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 it is hard to imagine that the world in which we live today; whereby evolution is taught above "intelligent design", that Lincoln was able to develop the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 and that separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. Each landmark events which can only be developed through debates, dialogues or discussions about what humans find the most important issues. Perhaps the earliest interaction which we could call an intellectual debate was in Ancient Greece: between Aristotle and Plato. Plato and Aristotle disagree profoundly about the nature of first dualist in that of Plato (427/428-348-347 B.C.) and the first materialist in Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) Without interactions this this I cannot imagine how science, philosophy and literature would have developed into the comprehensive disciples they are today. That had the Grecian Philosophers not pondered what it is to be human and discussed these with their contemporaries, I do not think it society would be as it is today. The wonder of life is that the most profound questions can be discussed: questions such as; what is truth, what is beauty, what is love, how do we live a good life? Without debates these questions may remain mysterious or perhaps never get resolved. In asking these questions and debating our views we are able to explore what it means to be human. That philosophy comes from the Greek philosophia, which literally means "love of wisdom". Debates also have a practical purpose: debates may be used by parliaments or legislative assemblies in order to discuss the implications of their proposed legislation. There are also formal debates between candidates for elected office, such as the leaders debates and the U.S. presidential election debates. The wonderful thing about debates is that they can be both informal and formal: intellectual or recreational; that no topic is too big or too small to discuss.