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Philosophy vocabulary · Key Thinkers' Concepts

Dialectic

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ˌdaɪəˈlektɪk/nounAdvanced term

In philosophy, dialectic means: A method of reaching truth through the clash of opposing positions, from the questions and answers of Plato's dialogues to Hegel's account of ideas developing through contradiction.

In Turkish: diyalektik, eytişim

How it is used

In Hegel, thought overcomes contradictions while keeping what was true on each side; Marx turned this into dialectical materialism, a theory of history. The neat formula thesis, antithesis, synthesis is a popular simplification that Hegel himself rarely used.

Example sentences

  1. Plato's dialectic proceeds by testing definitions through questions and answers.

  2. Hegel's dialectic shows how a concept turns into its opposite and is then taken up into something richer.

Common collocations

  • Hegelian dialectic
  • dialectical method
  • dialectical materialism
  • thesis, antithesis, synthesis
  • contradictionA statement, or a pair of statements, that cannot possibly be true, such as claiming both that something is the case and that it is not.
  • Socratic methodA way of examining ideas through a series of questions and answers that exposes contradictions in someone's beliefs and pushes them toward clearer thinking.
  • idealismThe metaphysical view that reality is fundamentally mental or depends on minds, so that no world exists entirely independent of thought or experience.
  • continental philosophyA loose label for mainly French and German traditions since Kant and Hegel, including phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, critical theory and post-structuralism.

More terms: Key Thinkers' Concepts

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