Dialectic

The term "dialectic" has been used in philosophy since the time of Socrates in ancient Greece. To Socratic philosophers, dialectic referred to a method of arriving at the truth by a dialogue: it is essentially a question-and-answer method where the main speaker asks questions of his listeners (interlocutors) until all agree on the truth or non-truth of a given proposition.

In the early 1800s, the German philosopher Hegel* (1770-1831) applied the term dialectic to his own method of philosophy. This is a logical method which proceeds from thesis, through antithesis, to synthesis.

‘Thesis’ is that which is put forward as a fact or truth (in other words, the thing being examined through the dialectic process). The thesis is opposed by any limitation or negation of the original postulate (this is called ‘antithesis’). This process leads to the development of a new thesis, which Hegel called ‘synthesis.’ In Hegel's view this process of thesis-antithesis-synthesis is not a human construct, but a reflection of a necessary, internal structure of reason itself. Later, Karl Marx* and Engels* used Hegel's dialectic in their own theory of dialectical materialism.

ONELINER: Dialectic is a method of arriving at the truth by a dialogue

OTHER CONNECTIONS: None

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hegel Glossary. Carl Mickelson, University of Idaho. http://www.class.uidaho.edu/mickelsen/texts/Hegel%20Glossary.htm**

"dialectic." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.  2001. http://www.bartleby.com/65/di/dialctic.html**

"Dialectics." Guide To Human Thought by Kenneth McLeish, Bloomsbury, 1995. http://www.bloomsburymagazine.com/ARC/detail.asp?entryid=103255&bid=2**