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Dialectic

A method of reasoning that progresses through resolving contradictions.

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Dialectic is a method of reasoning through dialogue and the resolution of contradictions, a term likely invented by Plato from the Greek for "to converse"[1]

Quick Facts

Etymology
Ancient Greek dialegesthai ('to converse')
Ancient forms
Heraclitus's unity of opposites, Socratic elenchus (later called 'dialectic')
Modern systematizer
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Materialist reconfiguration
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Core principles
  • Totality
  • constant change
  • contradiction as engine of change

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

Early forms of dialectical reasoning, termed "spontaneous dialectic", emerged in ancient Eastern traditions, including the I Ching and Taoism.[2][3] In ancient Greece, Heraclitus formulated the first clear dialectical account of the cosmos, emphasizing universal flux and the identity of opposites.[3][4] Plato systematized dialectic as the supreme philosophical method, involving collection and division to ascend from opinion to knowledge of the Forms.[5] After the Russian Revolution, dialectics was institutionalized in the Soviet Union as "diamat" (dialectical materialism).[6]

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels took Hegel's idealist dialectic and transformed it into a materialist one, arguing that history is propelled by contradictions within socioeconomic conditions.[7]

What the cited sources add

Psychologist Michael Basseches defined dialectic as "developmental transformation which occurs via constitutive and interactive relationships"[8] Bertell Ollman argued that the thesis–antithesis–synthesis formula is a "rock-ribbed triad" that misrepresents dialectical thinking.[9] Michael Heinrich wrote in his 2004 Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital that grandiose rhetoric about dialectics often reduces to the simple fact that everything is interconnected.[10] Karl Popper argued that dialectic's acceptance of contradiction violates the principle of non-contradiction and renders it unscientific.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nikulin 2010, p. 17; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dafermos 2025, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Williams 1989, p. 10 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Nikulin 2010, p. 17; Nikulin 2010, p. 17; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Nikulin 2010, p. 17; Nikulin 2010, p. 17 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: White 1996, p. 17; Rees 1998, p. 4; Kangal 2020, p. 95; Kangal 2020, p. 95; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dafermos 2025, p. 11; White 1996, p. 17 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rees 1998, p. 4; Rees 1998, p. 4; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Basseches 1984, p. 22–23; Basseches 1984, p. 22–23; Basseches 1984, p. 22–23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Arthur 2004, p. 12; Ollman 2003, p. 12; Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Ollman 2003, p. 12 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dafermos 2025, p. 11; Rees 1998, p. 4; Heinrich 2004, p. 36–37 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Dialectic" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Russell 1959, p. 246; Dafermos 2025, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Dialectic (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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