Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for common opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, academic institutions, debate halls, coffeehouses, competitions, and legislative assemblies. Debates have also been conducted for educational and recreational purposes, usually associated with educational establishments and debating societies. These debates emphasized logical consistency, factual accuracy, and emotional appeal to an audience. Modern forms of competitive debate also include rules for participants to discuss and decide upon the framework of the debates.
13th-century illustration of a Jew and a Christian debating in a work by the Jewish convert Petrus Alphonsi
A Debate among Scholars, Razmnama illustration
Debate Tonight: Whether a man's wig should be dressed with honey or mustard!, a 1795 cartoon satirizing the content of debates
Many subjects were debated in the London Debating Societies of the 18th century. This is a cover to a panegyric on marriage and family life, c. 1780.
English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries
In 17th- and 18th-century England, coffeehouses served as public social places where men would meet for conversation and commerce. For the price of a penny, customers purchased a cup of coffee and admission. Travellers introduced coffee as a beverage to England during the mid-17th century; previously it had been consumed mainly for its supposed medicinal properties. Coffeehouses also served tea and hot chocolate as well as a light meal.
The rules and orders of the coffeehouse
Garraway's Coffee House in Exchange Alley, London
A cartoon from 1787 depicting lawyer Edward Thurlow at Nando's Coffee House
Hogarth's depiction of a fight breaking out in Tom King's Coffee House, in his 1736 painting Four Times of the Day