Dialectic
Reasoning through question and answer or through opposed positions in order to reach truth.
Works to read
- Rhetoric by Aristotle, c. 350-335 BC · Great Books
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume, 1748 · Great Books
- Euthydemus by Plato, c. 384 BC · Great Books
- Cratylus by Plato, c. 380s-360s BC · Great Books
- Sophist by Plato, c. 360 BC · Great Books
- On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Topics and Sophistical Refutations by Aristotle, c. 350 BC · Great Books
- Galileo: The Starry Messenger, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, and Two New Sciences (First Day) by Galileo Galilei, 1610-1638 · Great Books
- The Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant, 1790 · Great Books
- Proslogion by Anselm of Canterbury, 1077–1078
- Gorgias by Plato, c. 387-385 BC · Great Books
- The Symposium by Plato, c. 385 BCE · Great Books
- The Republic by Plato, c. 380 BCE · Great Books
Passages
From the texts
The argument is the same if several middle terms should be necessary to establish the relation to B; for the figure will be the same whether there is one middle term or many.
— Aristotle, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Topics and Sophistical Refutations
In dialectic it is different: a man is a 'sophist' because he has a certain kind of moral purpose, a 'dialectician' in respect, not of his moral purpose, but of his faculty.
— Aristotle, Rhetoric
Verified quotations
Rhetoric is the counterpart of Dialectic
— Aristotle, Rhetoric
Passages are verified quotations from the library that use one of these words: dialectic, dialogue, argument. Sentences under “From the texts” are copied word for word from the full texts in this library. Read each in its context on the work's page.