Historically, the Sephardic and Ashkenazi also have a huge philosophical split. The Ashkenazi won. They control the dominant jewish position today, which has infected occidental philosophy.

The Sephardics believed in a truth that bore some similarity to the Christian belief in a truth, including the law of excluded middle, and therefore, that discourse could be used to expound upon it.

The Ashkenazi didn't believe in a truth (and still don't), and denied the law of excluded middle (and still do). To them, discourse was only used to get something, and the only purpose of debate was to exhaust the opponent. They called this pilpul.