～することで in a specific sentence


Below is an excerpt from 天声人語 vol. May 5th 2011:

> 地に足をつけてきた人々が地を追われる無念を思う。とことん考える **ことで** せめて悲痛に寄り添いたい。

The editor of this anthology I have at hand parses the `で` as `によって` or
`を使って`. The latter sentence means therefore "by feeling for the villagers all
the time, I might stand alongside them in their sadness."

But I am tempted to take `ことで` as `ことだ` giving emphasis to one's opinion,
parsing this `で` as the 連用形 of `だ`, with this example sentence from
[～ことだ](https://nihongonosensei.net/?p=10116) in my mind:

> お世話になった人にはちゃんと感謝を伝える **ことだ** 。

The two sentences seem to have something in common, I reckon, but couldn't be
sure. Therefore I cannot decide on which explanation to follow.




「で」of「考えることで」is 助詞. 「だ」of「伝えることだ」is 助動詞.




「で」of「考えることで」is 助詞. 「だ」of「伝えることだ」is 助動詞.

