There has been an excellent set of posts at "Feminist Philosophers" on philosophy-as-bloodsport. That phrase comes from an essay, Philosophy as a Blood Sport. The posts in question, all worth reading, with many good comments, are:
1. "Philosophy as a Blood Sport"
2. Rats!
3. Rats! II: So How Should We Do Philosophy?
The last of these notes that, important as arguments are in philosophy, ideas are important, too, and sharply adversarial approaches are not conducive to healthy creativity with regard to ideas. And the thing of it is, and the thing that seems difficult to get through people's heads, is that there is nothing sacrosanct about these approaches. They certainly are a ways away from ideals like the Republic of Letters or symphilosophie.
