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Single Idea 13883

[filed under theme 2. Reason / C. Styles of Reason / 1. Dialectic ]

Full Idea

The most productive way in which to attempt an understanding of any philosophical idea is to work on its defence.

Gist of Idea

The best way to understand a philosophical idea is to defend it

Source

Crispin Wright (Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects [1983], 1.vii)

Book Ref

Wright,Crispin: 'Frege's Conception of Numbers' [Scots Philosophical Monographs 1983], p.49

A Reaction

Very nice. The key point is that this brings greater understanding than working on attacking an idea, which presumably has the dangers of caricature, straw men etc. It is the Socratic insight that dialectic is the route to wisdom.

The 37 ideas with the same theme [approaching truth by discussion and analysis]:

164 It is legitimate to play the devil's advocate [Socrates]
13778 A dialectician is someone who knows how to ask and to answer questions [Plato]
8937 Plato's 'Parmenides' is the greatest artistic achievement of the ancient dialectic [Hegel on Plato]
2151 Dialectic is the only method of inquiry which uproots the things which it takes for granted [Plato]
2154 The ability to take an overview is the distinguishing mark of a dialectician [Plato]
4011 For Plato, rationality is a vision of and love of a cosmic rational order [Plato, by Taylor,C]
287 Good analysis involves dividing things into appropriate forms without confusion [Plato]
1644 Dialectic should only be taught to those who already philosophise well [Plato]
23891 Two contradictories force us to find a relation which will correlate them [Plato, by Weil]
5847 It is the role of dialectic to survey syllogisms [Aristotle]
2677 Dialectic aims to start from generally accepted opinions, and lead to a contradiction [Aristotle]
12260 Dialectic starts from generally accepted opinions [Aristotle]
7282 Disagreement means you do not understand at all [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
2670 Epicurus despises and laughs at the whole of dialectic [Epicurus, by Cicero]
20768 Like spiderswebs, dialectical arguments are clever but useless [Ariston, by Diog. Laertius]
20776 Dialectics is mastery of question and answer form [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
2661 Dialectic is speech cast in the form of logical argument [Cicero]
3035 Dialectic involves conversations with short questions and brief answers [Diog. Laertius]
22102 Arguing with opponents uncovers truths, and restrains falsehoods [Aquinas]
5602 The free dialectic opposition of arguments is an invaluable part of the sceptical method [Kant]
15615 Older metaphysics became dogmatic, by assuming opposed assertions must be true and false [Hegel]
15638 Dialectic is the moving soul of scientific progression, the principle which binds science together [Hegel]
21767 Dialectic is seen in popular proverbs like 'pride comes before a fall' [Hegel]
15639 Socratic dialectic is subjective, but Plato made it freely scientific and objective [Hegel]
21766 Dialectic is the instability of thoughts generating their opposite, and then new more complex thoughts [Hegel, by Houlgate]
21978 Hegel's dialectic is not thesis-antithesis-synthesis, but usually negation of negation of the negation [Hegel, by Moore,AW]
20952 Rather than in three stages, Hegel presented his dialectic as 'negation of the negation' [Hegel, by Bowie]
19445 A dialectician has to be his own opponent [Feuerbach]
19444 Each proposition has an antithesis, and truth exists as its refutation [Feuerbach]
2897 With dialectics the rabble gets on top [Nietzsche]
19630 No great idea ever emerged from a dialogue [Cioran]
21842 Don't assess ideas for truth or justice; look for another idea, and establish a relationship with it [Deleuze]
21850 Dualisms can be undone from within, by tracing connections, and drawing them to a new path [Deleuze]
8213 I try to analyse certain verbal concepts which block and confuse the dialectical process [Derrida]
7982 Instead of thesis and antithesis leading to synthesis, they now cancel out, and the conflict is levelled [Baudrillard]
13883 The best way to understand a philosophical idea is to defend it [Wright,C]
4635 Dialectic aims at unified truth, unlike analysis, which divides into parts [Baggini /Fosl]