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Disputation
Formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the iconographic subject, see Christ among the Doctors. For the oral defense of a doctoral thesis, see Dissertation.
"Disputationes" redirects here. For the work by Bellarmine, see Disputationes de Controversiis.
Disputation is a genre of literature involving two contenders who seek to establish a resolution to a problem or establish the superiority of something. An example of the latter is in Sumerian disputation poems.
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In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations (in Latin: disputationes, singular: disputatio) offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences. Fixed rules governed the process: they demanded dependence on traditional written authorities and the thorough understanding of each argument on each side.