वाद: (vAda) - The Constructive Debate

 What is the purpose of debate? Indeed, do we need debate, or would the world be a better place if everyone just agreed on everything?

NO!!!! That is an irreversible path to an Orwellian dystopia. And no debate means an eternal status quo, so no progress in thought, action, technology, culture, even civilization. In short, a dying, if not already dead, society.
But are all forms of debate for good? Why is so much ill will generated when there is difference of opinion, or of belief?

The Bhagavad Gita, as for many questions of life, provides a guide. The whole opus (or at least the first few chapters) is a debate between an unconvinced student (Arjuna) and a patient teacher (Krishna). But more than that, there is a clear statement by Krishna on what kind of debate is the superior one.

Chapter 10 of the BG is titled the “Divine Glories”. The Lord enumerates what he manifests as among various types of beings, objects, or actions. It can be interpreted that these manifestations are the superlatives of their respective classes or groups.

The last part of BG10.32 says वाद: प्रवदतामहम् (vAdah pravadatAm aham): “Among debators, I’m the type of debate called vAda”.

vAda is a type of debate where the interlocutors are not trying to win, or to make the other one lose; they are both interested in using the process of debate to challenge each others' hypotheses to arrive at the “truth”. So vAda is not a battle of attrition; it is the constructive form of debate. It is actually a method of discovery, and mutual learning.

More competent folks than I have talked about the different forms of debate, including the inferior ones where each party is either trying to just establish their PoV, or to degrade the opponent’s one. And in these, no means is too underhanded or reprehensible to not be deployed. I do not presume to know enough to write about the details of each one. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article on the topic, which is written quite well. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debates_in_ancient_India)

A parting thought: the word तर्क् (tarka) means both debate and logic in Sanskrit….

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