Full Idea
Eristic discussions involve as many tricks and traps as possible, but dialectical discussions involve being serious and correcting the interlocutor's mistakes only when they are his own fault or the result of past conditioning.
Clarification
'Eristic' is argument as a contest, but 'dialectic' is co-operation in pursuit of truth
Gist of Idea
Eristic discussion is aggressive, but dialectic aims to help one's companions in discussion
Source
Plato (Theaetetus [c.368 BCE], 167e)
Book Reference
Plato: 'Theaetetus', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [Penguin 1987], p.58