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Single Idea 13778

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

Full Idea

What would you call someone who knows how to ask and answer questions? Wouldn't you call him a dialectician?

Gist of Idea

A dialectician is someone who knows how to ask and to answer questions

Source

Plato (Cratylus [c.377 BCE], 390c)

Book Reference

Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.109


A Reaction

Asking good questions and giving good answers sound like two very different skills. I presume dialectic is the process of arriving at answers by means of asking the right questions.