Aquinas's Discourse on the Discourse of Discourse

The disputeatio is a linguistic form of openness to being, says philosopher. In the medieval Christianis disputeata it proceeds Aquinas - but no one else could have done as much better, he adds. The point was not to harmonize two voices, like in modern dialogue, writes Professor John Houghton-Smith. It's important that strawmen arguments were impermissible, and ridicule or posturing should also be avoided, he argues.