Debating teams are promoted in schools as a spur to effective language and incisive thought. They serve that purpose, but only by setting the goal of persuasion above the goal of truth. The debater’s strength lies not in intellectual curiosity nor in amenability to rational persuasion by others, but in his skill in defending a preconception come what may. ––W.V.O. Quine, Quiddities: An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary, 183, quoted in Kyle Robertson, "Debating Democarcy: Building Argument Programs for Good Citizenship," in The Ethics Bowl Way, 11-8.
A quote from the renowned American philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine
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