What is the underlying philosophy of this sub?

I have noticed that just about every time a topic is shared, the comments tend to lean towards providing background information and context to the topic, and tend to be encyclopedic in nature.<br><br>The comments seem to mostly be about providing background information, context, providing references and citations in the comments, and tend to lean towards just providing data points for the topic.<br><br>What is the underlying philosophy of providing this context? Is it based on empiricism? Do we lean towards the scientific method? Are we just providing data for discussion? I don't see much debate in the comments. I do see a lot of straw man arguments, and I do see a lot of people providing lengthy comments about things that don't really seem to be relevant to the discussion.<br><br>What do we hope to accomplish by providing this context and data? My opinion is that this context and data should be used to formulate an argument, and use that argument to try to convince others about our point of view. This sub seems to be lacking on that.