We tell you what dialectics is in philosophy, its logical conception and its metaphysical conception. Furthermore, its Greek origin, its relationship with Marxism and dialogicism.
What is dialectic?
Dialectic is a technical term of philosophy that has two basic conceptions: a logic and a metaphysics . The logical (or epistemological) conception of dialectic refers to a method to know the truth and the good. The metaphysical conception of dialectic, on the other hand, refers to a way of being of all things.
Key points
- Dialectic involves the crossing of two opposing parts.
- It is a methodological way of doing philosophy that is used to interpret reality.
- Hegel introduced the Hegelian dialectic with the figures of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.
- Marxism incorporated Hegelian dialectics to explain the future of history and class struggle.
The metaphysical conception of dialectic was introduced by the German philosopher GWF Hegel (1770-1831) in the 19th century. Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) fathers of communism and Marxism, took Hegelian dialectics and translated it into their materialist conception of history. In the 20th century, Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) reformulated Marxist dialectics into a new conception of dialectics that he called negative dialectic.
The word dialectic comes from the Greek dialektiké technéwhich means “art of dialogue” or “art of conversation or discussion.” Dialektike is a word composed of day“through” and lexis“word”. It can be translated as “through the word” or “through the argument.”
Logical dialectics and metaphysical dialectics
In its technical philosophical sense, there are two notions of dialectic. One is the logical or epistemological notion which understands dialectic as a method that serves to know the truth and access the good. The other is the metaphysical notion proposed by Hegel, which functions as a way of being of all things.
- Logical or epistemological dialectic . It is the method or path followed in a dialogue to link different ideas together. Epistemological dialectics discovers the relationships between different apparently opposite realities to capture reality in an integral way. It adjusts to the relational, dynamic and stable condition of reality.
- Metaphysical dialectic . It is the method that Hegel proposes and systematically links things to each other and to the Absolute (the idea of a “total Spirit” that dominates reality). Hegelian dialectics maintains that reality is the constant flow of a thesis and its antithesis, of a negation and its contradiction that lead to a synthesis, an overcoming of reason. Thanks to the struggle of the thesis and its antithesis, progress occurs, a product of synthesis.
One of the forms of Hegelian dialectic is the dialectic of master and slave. This describes the forms of dominion and servitude that occur in the course of history. It is the recognition of one self-consciousness to another self-consciousness as equal to itself.
For Marx and Engels, the Hegelian scheme is the theoretical model that explains the movement of reality and the historical transformation of society. Marxism also uses dialectics to explain the idea of ideology which he defines as the search for security that transforms into a will to dominate that imprisons reality in a scheme.
History of dialectics
Dialectics as an art of discussion has its origins in the Greek world. Socrates (470-399 BC) thought that discussion was the best method that could be used to learn and acquire knowledge . His method, which was a way of accessing the truth, is known as socratic dialogue and consisted of the exchange of a series of arguments that had to be based on the everyday experience of the interlocutors, on reason and on the absence of contradiction in their arguments.
Plato (427-347 BC), for his part, took Socratic dialectics to the level of a logical and philosophical tool . In his works two forms of dialectics can be distinguished:
- A logical-intellectual dialectic which seeks to educate the intelligence of the philosopher and prepares him to ascend to the plane of ideas.
- A dialectic of Eros (of love), which seeks to educate the will and virtue, as set forth in Feastone of his works.
For Aristotle (384-322 BC), dialectics is a logic of probable propositions . This means that it is a form of debate. Probable propositions are the arguments that are faced and on which one must decide to discern what is good and bad.
This idea of dialectics, which Aristotle developed in Policyone of his works, was assimilated, during the Middle Ages, to the idea of rhetoric. The shift to the level of rhetoric removed all signs of rigor from dialectics. Thinkers such as Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) and René Descartes (1596-1650), who promulgated systems of thought based on scientific and rigorous models, distrusted dialectics due to its proximity to rhetoric and probability. The same thing happened with Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), although he developed his own form of dialectic that he called transcendental dialectic.
In the 19th century, thanks to Hegel, dialectics acquired a new philosophical, now metaphysical, meaning. Hegel incorporated into dialectic the idea of the law of opposites that had to be confronted. These opposites are known as thesis and antithesis. An overcoming was to appear from the conflict of the thesis and antithesis, the synthesis. This added to the dialectic the idea of becomingwhich is the incorporation of time and the instability of being (which is subject to change), as well as that of struggle, conflict and denial.
Marx and Engels adapted the scheme of Hegelian dialectics to historical materialism . Taking the scheme thesis–antithesisthey incorporated it into history, understood as a class struggle and a constant power relationship between man and nature. A century later, Adorno reconfigured the Marxist dialectic into the negative dialectic, still in force which leaves all possibility of synthesis of history suspended.
Dialectics and dialogism
Dialectics and dialogism are two terms that are often confused and, although there are similarities between the two, they are not the same.
Dialectics and dialogism are thoughts that assume there is a logos or reason in the dynamism of reality . Thus, the reflective exercise has to explain what changes and the reason for the change. Furthermore, dialogism maintains that a person's dynamism is displayed in their dealings with reality.
For dialogism, the task of philosophy is to explain the dynamism of reality and historical dynamism and biographies as realities. essential and not accidental of the human being and his way of knowing reality.
However, Dialogical thinking is not stated as a theoretical model but as a participatory deal with reality . In this way, dialogism does not interpret reality but rather dialogues with it, letting reality unfold in its own way of being. If dialectic is a closed scheme that determines the future of the real, dialogism opens the tension to the uncertain possibilities of the future of the real, not yet defined.
References
- Lefebvre, H. (1993). Formal logic, dialectical logicto. 21st century.
- Gadamer, H. G. (2000). Hegel's dialectic. Chair Editions.
- Hegel, M. (2004). And the dialectic.
- Hinkelammert, F.J. (2019). Marxist dialectics and the humanism of praxis. Economy and Society24(55), 120-137.
- Yarza, I. (1996). Ethics and dialectics. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Acta Philosophica Magazine5(2), 293-315.
- Buck-Morss, S., Benjamin, W., & Adorno, T. W. (1981). Origin of negative dialectic. 21st century of Spain.
