Dialectic

In philosophy, dialectic is an argument or debate between different people. In Medieval Europe, dialectics (or logic) was one of the three beginning liberal arts all together known as the trivium; the other members were rhetorics and grammar.^[1][2][3][4]

The goal of the dialectical process (dialectic or dialectics) is to try to resolve the disagreement through rational talk,^[5][6] and the search for the truth in the matter.

Dialectics has three main ideas:

• 1: Everything is made out of opposing forces/opposing sides.
• 2: Gradual changes lead to turning points, where one force overcomes the other.
• 3: Change moves in spirals not circles.

Related pages

• Text grammar
• Discourse analysis
• Dispute
• Socratic method

References

1. Abelson P. 1965. The seven liberal arts; a study in mediæval culture. New York: Russell & Russell. p82
2. Hyman A. & Walsh J.J. 1983. Philosophy in the Middle Ages: the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions. Indianapolis: Hackett. p164
3. Adler, Mortimer Jerome 2000. Dialectic. Routledge. p4 ISBN 0-415-22550-7
4. Herbermann C.G. 1913. The Catholic encyclopedia: an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, and history of the Catholic church. New York: The Encyclopedia Press. pp760–764
5. Pinto R.C. 2001. Argument, inference and dialectic: collected papers on informal logic. Argumentation library, vol 4. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. pp138–139
6. Eemeren F.H. von 2003. Anyone who has a view: theoretical contributions to the study of argumentation. Argumentation library, vol 8. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. p92