 Al-Fārābī cites Aristotle as saying that the primary aim in debate is to refute proposed views; reaching agreement is a secondary aim ([Debate] 14.7–9). Accordingly the rules of debate provide that one of the debaters, known as the “questioner” (sā’il), has the role of refuting the views offered by the other debater (the “responder”, mujīb). It’s also the questioner’s task to elicit from the responder commitments to statements. (Committing is called “conceding” or “submitting”, taslīm.) The questioner must then try to refute these statements and the responder must try to defend them. The questioner elicits a commitment by presenting to the responder a pair of incompatible possibilities, and the responder must choose which possibility to defend. This pair of incompatible possibilities is referred to as “what was sought after” (maṭlūb, in Latin quaesitum), or the “question” (mas’ala). 