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2. Reason / C. Styles of Reason / 1. Dialectic

[approaching truth by discussion and analysis]

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