Dialectic
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Dialectic, also known as the dialectical method, is a method of reasoning and philosophical argument that emphasizes the progression of thought through a process of resolving contradictions. The term,
Heraclitus's philosophy, with its principles of universal flux and the unity of opposites, is considered the first clear formulation of dialectic in ancient Greek thought.
Marcello Bacciarelli's Alcibiades Being Taught by Socrates (1776)
Bust of Plato
Bust of Aristotle
Plato
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Plato was an ancient Greek philosopher of Classical Athens who is most commonly considered the foundational thinker of the Western philosophical tradition. An innovator of the literary dialogue and di
Dialectic
…of thought through a process of resolving contradictions. The term, rooted in the Ancient Greek dialegesthai ('to converse'), was popularized by Plato's Socratic dialogues, which presented dialectic as a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing…
Plato was one of the devoted young followers of Socrates, whose bust is pictured above.
Heraclitus (1628) by Hendrick ter Brugghen. Heraclitus saw a world in flux, with everything always in conflict, constantly changing.
Bust of Parmenides from Velia. Parmenides saw the world as eternal and unchanging, that all change was an illusion.
The mathematical and mystical teachings of the followers of Pythagoras, pictured above, exerted a strong influence on Plato.