Discussion is not for a purpose to achieve, it is for a purpose to communicate.
You and I are not sitting here, talking, in order to accomplish - some third thing. We sit here talking to accomplish one thing: to hear the other's view, perchance to grasp the other's point. And we sit here talking to accomplish thing two: to put across our own view, or our own question, our own expression. There's no third thing we are "talking for."
Now it is possible that as we talk, we two might suddenly find that we are united, on some flung topic. And if that happens, we may even find that we are seized with fervor! To leap, to run outside! To make! To DO! TOGETHER!
If so, fine, wonderful, but anybody who thinks that is the purpose of talking is a psychopath. Unity is an occasional, often pleasant by-product or coincidence or consequence that comes sometimes, after an exchange of views. It isn't the purpose of exchanging views. The purpose of exchanging views is to say who one is, and hear who another is. Not to work at it until we think or can say we're the same. If we find in the end we're the same, great! Fine. Wonderful! Kind of beside the point, though.
Wouldn't you agree?
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