Dialectic
Concept · Philosophy, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
Dialectic is a method of arriving at truth through structured disagreement. In its oldest form, practiced by Socrates and recorded by Plato, it means questioning a claim until its contradictions surface, then refining the claim in response. Later philosophers, most notably Hegel, used the same word for a different process: history and thought developing through a repeated pattern of a claim, its opposite, and a resolution that combines them. The two uses share a name but not a method.
Why it matters
Knowing which sense of 'dialectic' a text is using prevents a common mix-up between the Socratic method and the Hegelian pattern of history.
