In Nyaya philosophy only some debates are worth having

Key points:

During the 9th to 10th century CE, Vācaspati Miśra, an Indian philosopher who was part of a Hindu tradition called ‘Nyāya’ (or ‘reason’) argued that debate benefits society when it aims for truth. He thought, too, that debate helps us humans achieve ultimate happiness in our short, fragile and often painful human lives. But if debate has such noble aims, should we care about winning or losing? And if debate leads us to the truth, should we always debate everyone, everywhere? To understand Vācaspati’s answer, we must first understand the Nyāya philosophy of debate.
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So are Nyāya philosophers premodern free-speech absolutists, for whom the desire for unbridled debate is above all else? Is debate for them an almost salvific activity, to be entered into with all comers, at all times? Would they, for instance, agree with the signatories of a recent letter to Harper’s who argue that restricting debate ‘invariably hurts those who lack power’ and that the ‘way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away’?
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For Vācaspati and other Nyāya philosophers, debate works only under certain conditions. It won’t always, everywhere, for everyone, result in a turn towards truth. In the background to Nyāya thinking about debate are older texts, such as Caraka’s Compendium, which urges medical experts to consider their own rhetorical and intellectual abilities, the hostility or friendliness of the audience, and the abilities of their interlocutor, before agreeing to a debate.

What I find interesting about this is the framing of a sort of "just war theory" around debate, with different levels of tactics and rhetoric permissible under different circumstances. I think there's a lot to learn from this approach when it comes to discussion of serious issues in modern Academia, Social Media, as well as here on Tildes.