Pilpul was originally a method of textual analysis of the talmud. The technique has been expanded into other domains, including to a large extent general public discourse, though most people wouldn't recognize it as such because it is so common.

Modern discursive pilpul generally denies that there's a truth, including by denying the law of excluded middle, and therefore, generally views argument / dialog as merely being a rhetorical exercise whereby you wear your opponent down by continuing to discourse ad nauseum.