Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.
- n. The process especially associated with Hegel of arriving at the truth by stating a thesis, developing a contradictory antithesis, and combining and resolving them into a coherent synthesis.
- n. Hegel's critical method for the investigation of this process.
- n. The Marxian process of change through the conflict of opposing forces, whereby a given contradiction is characterized by a primary and a secondary aspect, the secondary succumbing to the primary, which is then transformed into an aspect of a new contradiction. Often used in the plural with a singular or plural verb.
- n. The Marxian critique of this process.
- n. A method of argument or exposition that systematically weighs contradictory facts or ideas with a view to the resolution of their real or apparent contradictions.
- n. The contradiction between two conflicting forces viewed as the determining factor in their continuing interaction.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Relating to the art of reasoning about probabilities; pertaining to scholastic disputation. Kantians sometimes use the word in the sense of pertaining to false argumentation.
- Of or pertaining to a dialect or dialects; dialectal.
- Also dialectical.
- n. [= French dialectique = Sp. dialéctica = Pg. dialectica = It. dialettica = G. Dan. Sw. dialektik, ⟨ L. dialectica, ⟨ Gr.
διαλεκτική (sc.τέχνη ), the dialectic art, the art of discussion, logical debate, also the logic of probabilities, fem. ofδιαλεκτικός , belonging to disputation: see I.] - n. Logic, or a branch of logic; specifically, the art of critical examination into the truth of an opinion; inductive logic applied to philosophy; the logic of probable reasoning; the art of discussion and of disputation; logic applied to rhetoric and refutation. The invention of the art of dialectic is attributed to Zeno the Eleatic, whose arguments against motion are examples of the original meaning of the Greek word. The famous dialectic of Socrates and Plato, their chief instrument of philosophical inquiry, was a conversational discussion with inductive appeals to special instances. Dialectic was limited by Aristotle to logic accommodated to the uses of the rhetorician, appealing only to general belief, but not to first principles. The Stoics, who probably introduced the term logic, divided that art into rhetoric and dialectic, the former being the art of continuous discourse, the latter that of discussion with an interlocutor. Cicero and other Latin writers, influenced by Stoic doctrine, understand by dialectic “the art of discussing well” (ars bene disserendi). It thus became the name of that branch of the trivium of the Roman schools which we call logic, and retained that meaning throughout the middle ages. Hence, in all the earlier English literature, it is the synonym of logic, differing from that word only by a more distinct suggestion of the idea of disputation. Modern logicians have frequently restricted it to the doctrines of the Topics and Sophistical Elenchi, or to the former alone. It has also been used as a synonym of syllogistic. Kant named the constructive part of his Transcendental Logic transcendental analytic, and the destructive part transcendental dialectic. For the sake of this phrase, he makes dialectic, in general, the theory of fallacies. According to Hegel, each concept in the development of thought by a primitive necessity develops its own diametrical opposite, and to this reaction of thought against itself, regarded not as final, but as subject to a subsequent reconcilement in a higher order of thought, he gave the name of dialectic.
- n. Skill in disputation. Also dialectics.
Wiktionary
- n. Any formal system of reasoning that arrives at a truth by the exchange of logical arguments.
- n. A contradiction of ideas that serves as the determining factor in their interaction.
- adj. dialectical
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Same as dialectics.
- adj. Pertaining to dialectics; logical; argumental.
- adj. Pertaining to a dialect or to dialects.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any formal system of reasoning that arrives at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments
- adj. of or relating to or employing dialectic
- n. a contradiction of ideas that serves as the determining factor in their interaction
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek διαλεκτική (dialektike, "the art of argument through interactive questioning and answering"), from διαλεκτικός (dialektikos, "competent debater"), from διαλέγομαι (dialegomai, "to participate in a dialogue"), from διά (dia, "through, across") + λέγειν (legein, "to speak"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English dialetik, from Old French dialetique, from Latin dialectica, logic, from Greek dialektikē (tekhnē), (art) of debate, feminine of dialektikos, from dialektos, speech, conversation; see dialect. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The ancient Greeks used the term dialectic to refer to various methods of reasoning and discussion in order to discover the truth.”
“The caricature of the dialectic is a boiling-down of every historical or philosophical pattern to two concepts in conflict with each other — depending on the caricature, either one concept inevitably prevails, or the two are mashed up into a crude "synthesis.”
“The Marxist-Leninists call it dialectic materialism. say one thig to mask the fact that you mean the opposite.”
“Then this is the progress which you call dialectic?”
“e. with reality, it was natural that the term dialectic should be again extended from function to object, from thought to thing; and so, even as early as Plato, it had come to signify the whole science of reality, both as to method and as to content, thus nearly approaching what has been from a somewhat later period universally known as metaphysics.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery
“To become a really great lawyer you will need to internalize the process of having a dialog with the text - call it dialectic reasoning, or an internal Socratic Dialog if you must.”
“Saying that, there is a certain dialectic (in the simple sense of the term) involved here, in terms of community norms that can be reasonably conceived and established within the context of both the law and wider moral/ethical considerations at the community level.”
“The ultimate end-point of this, on one side of the dialectic, is maieutic fiction. posted by Hal Duncan | 9: 43 PM”
“Miles uses their contrasting personalities and circumstances to forge a sort of Gallic Woodward-and-Bernstein dialectic, then pits the pair against the newly restored Bourbon monarchy and its shameful post-disaster attempts at saving face by suppressing the facts.”
“In fact, anything of consequence in Hegel works in threes, a mechanism he called the dialectic, in which the truth is a kind of cosmic alarm clock that brings the world to its senses after a period of activity followed by rest.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dialectic’.
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 346 more...
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PHIL - vocabulary of thinking
Athenian, Socratic, philosopher, dialogue, philosophy, philosophical, politic, stubborn, bright, smart, thoughtful, extrapolate and 243 more...
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 321 more...
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Keywords, by Raymond Williams
From a book about life and death.
aesthetic, alienation, art, behaviour, bourgeois, bureaucracy, capitalism, career, charity, city, civilization, class and 99 more...
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Realia from Everywhere
Culturally defined terms and expressions from the four corners of the world
fjord, mistral steppe, tornado, tsunami, polder, kiwi, koala, sequoia, Abominable Snowman, paprika, spaghetti, empanada and 299 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Specifically
Being a list of words which have "specifically" in their definitions.
recompose, specifically, Dutch, abstinence, discipline, virtue, namely, opening, century, amalgamation, cup, second and 303 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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GRE
droll, dyspeptic, ebullient, ardor, edify, efficacy, malinger, mannered, martinet, maudlin, mendacious, mendicant and 101 more...
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philosophical adjectives
Common and not-so-common adjectives found while studying philosophy.
dialectic, ontological, logical, theological, empirical, moral, ethical, metaphysical, atheistic, synthetic, monistic, dualistic and 13 more...
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a Doppelgänger story
words you'd find in a Doppelgänger story
mistaken identity, fetch, evil twin, delusion, nephele, dead ringer, sosia, supplant, usurp, svengali, dichotomy, dialectic and 19 more...
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Sept 2012
apoplectic, ataraxia, belletristic, apotheosis, dominatrix, contumacious, litigious, provincial, abscess, pillory, patina, dialectic and 1 more...
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Words to make you sound smart
duality, hence, inference, deduce, juxtapose, mundane, gregarious, plight, esoteric, austere, encompass, subsidize and 17 more...
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New words
Words that are new to me.
autostrada, gimlet, clyster, gravida, skelped, nacreous, susurrus, intransigent, puissant, turbid, plangent, fungible and 99 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dialectic.

bilby can you overdose on cough drop Feb 4, 2013
ruzuzu "Whereas the purpose of logic is classically said to be a method of arriving at the truth, dialectic, says |Arthur| Schopenhauer, "...on the other hand, would treat of the intercourse between two rational beings who, because they are rational, ought to think in common, but who, as soon as they cease to agree like two clocks keeping exactly the same time, create a disputation, or intellectual contest.""
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Art_of_Being_Right&oldid=530348267 Feb 4, 2013
jwjarvis Hegelian dialectic: triads, thesis-antithesis-synthesis
immediate-mediate-concrete
Kant: abstract-negative-concrete Dec 2, 2010