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118-448: The glossators conducted detailed text studies that resulted in collections of explanations. For their work they used a method of study unknown to the Romans themselves, insisting that contradictions in the legal material were only apparent. They tried to harmonize the sources in the conviction that for every legal question only one binding rule exists. Thus they approached these legal sources in

236-551: A dialectical way, which is a characteristic of medieval scholasticism . They sometimes needed to invent new concepts not found in Roman law, such as half-proof (evidence short of full proof but of some force, such as a single witness). In other medieval disciplines, for example theology and philosophy , glosses were also made on the main authoritative texts. In the Greek language , γλῶσσα ( glossa ) means "tongue" or "language." Originally,

354-436: A thesis , giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis , which contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis . Although, Hegel opposed these terms. By contrast, the terms abstract , negative , and concrete suggest a flaw or an incompleteness in any initial thesis. For Hegel, the concrete must always pass through the phase of the negative, that is, mediation. This

472-630: A "convenient organizing category". The philosopher of science and physicist Mario Bunge repeatedly criticized Hegelian and Marxian dialectics, calling them "fuzzy and remote from science" and a "disastrous legacy". He concluded: "The so-called laws of dialectics, such as formulated by Engels (1940, 1954) and Lenin (1947, 1981), are false insofar as they are intelligible." Poe Yu-ze Wan , reviewing Bunge's criticisms of dialectics, found Bunge's arguments to be important and sensible, but he thought that dialectics could still serve some heuristic purposes for scientists. Wan pointed out that scientists such as

590-539: A developmental process and so does not naturally fit within classical logic . Nevertheless, some twentieth-century logicians have attempted to formalize it. There are a variety of meanings of dialectic or dialectics within Western philosophy . In classical philosophy , dialectic ( διαλεκτική ) is a form of reasoning based upon dialogue of arguments and counter-arguments, advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions ( antitheses ). The outcome of such

708-499: A dialectic might be the refutation of a relevant proposition, or a synthesis, a combination of the opposing assertions, or a qualitative improvement of the dialogue. The term "dialectic" owes much of its prestige to its role in the philosophies of Socrates and Plato , in the Greek Classical period (5th to 4th centuries BC). Aristotle said that it was the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea who invented dialectic, of which

826-583: A few manuscripts exist. The main microfilm collections of glossed legal manuscripts are at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main, at the universities of Munich, Würzburg, Milan, Leyden and Berkeley. Dialectic Dialectic ( Ancient Greek : διαλεκτική , dialektikḗ ; German : Dialektik ), also known as the dialectical method , refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about

944-445: A new groundwork for studying metaphysics. Although Kant held that objective knowledge of the world required the mind to impose a conceptual or categorical framework on the stream of pure sensory data—a framework including space and time themselves—he maintained that things-in-themselves existed independently of human perceptions and judgments; he was therefore not an idealist in any simple sense. Kant's account of things-in-themselves

1062-594: A perfect island using the same steps of reasoning (therefore leading to an absurd outcome ). Boethius also worked on the problem of universals , arguing that they did not exist independently as claimed by Plato, but still believed, in line with Aristotle, that they existed in the substance of particular things. Another important figure for scholasticism, Peter Abelard , extended this to nominalism , which states (in complete opposition to Plato) that universals were in fact just names given to characteristics shared by particulars . Thomas Aquinas , an academic philosopher and

1180-490: A philosophy of dialectical materialism . These representations often contrasted dramatically and led to vigorous debate among different Marxist groups. The Hegelian dialectic describes changes in the forms of thought through their own internal contradictions into concrete forms that overcome previous oppositions . This dialectic is sometimes presented in a threefold manner, as first stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus , as comprising three dialectical stages of development:

1298-466: A short article entitled "Some Critical Thoughts on 'Functional Specialties in Theology'" where he stated: "Lonergan's theological methodology seems to me to be so generic that it really fits every science , and hence is not the methodology of theology as such, but only a very general methodology of science." Friedrich Nietzsche viewed dialectic as a method that imposes artificial boundaries and suppresses

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1416-527: A simple fallacy: that because something that is true proves useful, that usefulness is an appropriate basis for its truthfulness. Pragmatist thinkers include Dewey, George Santayana , and C. I. Lewis . Pragmatism was later worked on by neopragmatists Richard Rorty who was the first to develop neopragmatist philosophy in his Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Hilary Putnam , W. V. O. Quine , and Donald Davidson . Neopragmatism has been described as

1534-807: A simple life free from all possessions. The Cyrenaics promoted a philosophy nearly opposite that of the Cynics, endorsing hedonism , holding that pleasure was the supreme good, especially immediate gratifications; and that people could only know their own experiences, beyond that truth was unknowable. The final school of philosophy to be established during the Classical period was the Peripatetic school , founded by Plato's student, Aristotle . Aristotle wrote widely about topics of philosophical concern, including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, politics, and logic. Aristotelian logic

1652-467: A society, but not to the degree of absolute rule. Jean-Jacques Rousseau meanwhile argued that in nature people were living in a peaceful and comfortable state , and that the formation of society led to the rise of inequality . The approximate end of the early modern period is most often identified with Immanuel Kant's systematic attempt to limit metaphysics, justify scientific knowledge, and reconcile both of these with morality and freedom. Whereas

1770-458: A subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argumentation . Dialectic resembles debate , but the concept excludes subjective elements such as emotional appeal and rhetoric . It has its origins in ancient philosophy and continued to be developed in the Middle Ages . Hegelianism refigured "dialectic" to no longer refer to a literal dialogue. Instead, the term takes on

1888-536: A system is a lack of integrity". In the same book, Nietzsche criticized Socrates' dialectics because he believed it prioritized reason over instinct, resulting in the suppression of individual passions and the imposition of an artificial morality. Karl Popper attacked the dialectic repeatedly. In 1937, he wrote and delivered a paper entitled "What Is Dialectic?" in which he criticized the dialectics of Hegel, Marx, and Engels for their willingness "to put up with contradictions". He argued that accepting contradiction as

2006-463: A valid form of logic would lead to the principle of explosion and thus trivialism . Popper concluded the essay with these words: "The whole development of dialectic should be a warning against the dangers inherent in philosophical system-building. It should remind us that philosophy should not be made a basis for any sort of scientific system and that philosophers should be much more modest in their claims. One task which they can fulfill quite usefully

2124-404: A violent and anarchic, calling life under such a state of affairs "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". To prevent this, he believed that the sovereign of the state should have essentially unlimited power. In contrast, Locke believed the state of nature be one where individuals enjoyed freedom, but that some of that (excluding those covered by natural rights ) had to be given up when forming

2242-428: Is a dynamic process that results in something new: For the sake of greater precision, let us say that a dialectic is a concrete unfolding of linked but opposed principles of change. Thus there will be a dialectic if (1) there is an aggregate of events of a determinate character, (2) the events may be traced to either or both of two principles, (3) the principles are opposed yet bound together, and (4) they are modified by

2360-568: Is acceptable, then there must exist at least one thing that is both pious and impious (as it is both loved and hated by the gods)—which Euthyphro admits is absurd. Thus, Euthyphro is brought to a realization by this dialectical method that his definition of piety is not sufficiently meaningful. In another example, in Plato's Gorgias , dialectic occurs between Socrates, the Sophist Gorgias, and two men, Polus and Callicles. Because Socrates' ultimate goal

2478-722: Is an approach to theology in Protestantism that was developed in the aftermath of the First World War (1914–1918). It is characterized as a reaction against doctrines of 19th-century liberal theology and a more positive reevaluation of the teachings of the Reformation , much of which had been in decline (especially in western Europe) since the late 18th century . It is primarily associated with two Swiss professors and pastors, Karl Barth (1886–1968) and Emil Brunner (1899–1966), even though Barth himself expressed his unease in

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2596-443: Is both controversial and highly complex. Continuing his work, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling dispensed with belief in the independent existence of the world, and created a thoroughgoing idealist philosophy. The most notable work of absolute idealism was G. W. F. Hegel 's Phenomenology of Spirit , of 1807. Hegel admitted his ideas were not new, but that all the previous philosophies had been incomplete. His goal

2714-431: Is broached in the form of a question, oppositional responses are given, a counterproposal is argued and oppositional arguments rebutted. Because of its emphasis on rigorous dialectical method, scholasticism was eventually applied to many other fields of study. Anselm of Canterbury (called the 'father of scholasticism') argued that the existence of God could be irrefutably proved with the logical conclusion apparent in

2832-408: Is central to the development of dialectics: the progress from quantity to quality, the acceleration of gradual social change; the negation of the initial development of the status quo ; the negation of that negation; and the high-level recurrence of features of the original status quo . Friedrich Engels further proposed that nature itself is dialectical, and that this is "a very simple process, which

2950-457: Is disputed. The term " modern philosophy " has multiple usages. For example, Thomas Hobbes is sometimes considered the first modern philosopher because he applied a systematic method to political philosophy. By contrast, René Descartes is often considered the first modern philosopher because he grounded his philosophy in problems of knowledge , rather than problems of metaphysics. Modern philosophy and especially Enlightenment philosophy

3068-472: Is distinguished by its increasing independence from traditional authorities such as the Church, academia, and Aristotelianism; a new focus on the foundations of knowledge and metaphysical system-building; and the emergence of modern physics out of natural philosophy. Some central topics of Western philosophy in its early modern (also classical modern) period include the nature of the mind and its relation to

3186-435: Is exposed and only constructive in that this exposure may lead to further search for truth. The detection of error does not amount to a proof of the antithesis. For example, a contradiction in the consequences of a definition of piety does not provide a correct definition. The principal aim of Socratic activity may be to improve the soul of the interlocutors, by freeing them from unrecognized errors, or indeed, by teaching them

3304-417: Is in its essence critical and revolutionary. Class struggle is the primary contradiction to be resolved by Marxist dialectics because of its central role in the social and political lives of a society. Nonetheless, Marx and Marxists developed the concept of class struggle to comprehend the dialectical contradictions between mental and manual labor and between town and country. Hence, philosophic contradiction

3422-514: Is known as the " Hegelian dialectic ". Philosophers influenced by Hegel include Ludwig Feuerbach , who coined the term "projection" as pertaining to humans' inability to recognize anything in the external world without projecting qualities of ourselves upon those things; Karl Marx ; Friedrich Engels ; and the British idealists , notably T. H. Green , J. M. E. McTaggart , F. H. Bradley , and R. G. Collingwood . Few 20th-century philosophers embraced

3540-641: Is not accessible to mortals. Following the end of the skeptical period of the academy with Antiochus of Ascalon , Platonic thought entered the period of Middle Platonism , which absorbed ideas from the Peripatetic and Stoic schools. More extreme syncretism was done by Numenius of Apamea , who combined it with Neopythagoreanism . Also affected by the Neopythagoreans, the Neoplatonists , first of them Plotinus , argued that mind exists before matter, and that

3658-411: Is not so much a philosophy or a theology as a methodology , as it places a strong emphasis on dialectical reasoning to extend knowledge by inference and to resolve contradictions . Scholastic thought is also known for rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions. In the classroom and in writing, it often takes the form of explicit disputation ; a topic drawn from the tradition

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3776-462: Is reestablished in Christ. For Barth this meant that only through God's 'no' to everything human can his 'yes' be perceived. Applied to traditional themes of Protestant theology, such as double predestination , this means that election and reprobation cannot be viewed as a quantitative limitation of God's action. Rather it must be seen as its "qualitative definition". As Christ bore the rejection as well as

3894-467: Is sublated, on the one hand, is overcome, but, on the other hand, is preserved and maintained. As in the Socratic dialectic, Hegel claimed to proceed by making implicit contradictions explicit: each stage of the process is the product of contradictions inherent or implicit in the preceding stage. On his view, the purpose of dialectics is "to study things in their own being and movement and thus to demonstrate

4012-449: Is such an adjunction or more generally the duality between closed monoidal categories and their internal logic . Western philosophy Western philosophy refers to the philosophical thought, traditions and works of the Western world . Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture , beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the pre-Socratics . The word philosophy itself originated from

4130-492: Is taking place everywhere and every day". His dialectical "law of the transformation of quantity into quality and vice versa" corresponds, according to Christian Fuchs , to the concept of phase transition and anticipated the concept of emergence "a hundred years ahead of his time". For Vladimir Lenin , the primary feature of Marx's "dialectical materialism" (Lenin's term) is its application of materialist philosophy to history and social sciences. Lenin's main contribution to

4248-411: Is the essence of what is popularly called Hegelian dialectics. To describe the activity of overcoming the negative, Hegel often used the term Aufhebung , variously translated into English as "sublation" or "overcoming", to conceive of the working of the dialectic. Roughly, the term indicates preserving the true portion of an idea, thing, society, and so forth, while moving beyond its limitations. What

4366-506: Is the study of the critical methods of science ". Seventy years later, Nicholas Rescher responded that "Popper's critique touches only a hyperbolic version of dialectic", and he quipped: "Ironically, there is something decidedly dialectical about Popper's critique of dialectics." Around the same time as Popper's critique was published, philosopher Sidney Hook discussed the "sense and nonsense in dialectic" and rejected two conceptions of dialectic as unscientific but accepted one conception as

4484-562: Is thus a method by which one can examine social and economic behaviors. It is the foundation of the philosophy of dialectical materialism , which forms the basis of historical materialism. In the Marxist tradition, "dialectic" refers to regular and mutual relationships, interactions, and processes in nature, society, and human thought. A dialectical relationship is a relationship in which two phenomena or ideas mutually impact each other, leading to development and negation. Development refers to

4602-700: Is too abstract. Against this, Marx presented his own dialectic method, which he claimed to be "direct opposite" of Hegel's method. Marxist dialectics is exemplified in Das Kapital . As Marx explained dialectical materialism, it includes in its comprehension an affirmative recognition of the existing state of things, at the same time, also, the recognition of the negation of that state, of its inevitable breaking up; because it regards every historically developed social form as in fluid movement, and therefore takes into account its transient nature not less than its momentary existence; because it lets nothing impose upon it, and

4720-459: Is triggered by objects existing in the external world, with thought being a kind of computation. John Locke was another classic empiricist, with his arguments helping it overtake rationalism as the generally preferred approach. Together with David Hume , they form the core of 'British empiricism'. George Berkeley agreed with empiricism, but instead of believing in an ultimate reality which created perceptions, argued in favour immaterialism and

4838-476: Is usually considered to begin around the pivotal year of 1781, when Gotthold Ephraim Lessing died and Immanuel Kant 's Critique of Pure Reason appeared. The 19th century saw the beginnings of what would later grow into the divide between Continental and analytic traditions of philosophy, with the former more interested in general frameworks of metaphysics (more common in the German-speaking world), and

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4956-463: Is very general in applicability. Mathematician William Lawvere interpreted dialectics in the setting of categorical logic in terms of adjunctions between idempotent monads . This perspective may be useful in the context of theoretical computer science where the duality between syntax and semantics can be interpreted as a dialectic in this sense. For example, the Curry-Howard equivalence

5074-421: Is water") His use of observation and reason to derive this conclusion is the reason for distinguishing him as the first philosopher. Thales' student Anaximander claimed that the arche was the apeiron , the infinite . Following both Thales and Anaximander, Anaximenes of Miletus claimed that air was the most suitable candidate. Pythagoras (born c.  570 BCE ), from the island of Samos off

5192-445: The unmoved mover . His ethical views identified eudaimonia as the ultimate good, as it was good in itself. He thought that eudaimonia could be achieved by living according to human nature, which is to live with reason and virtue, defining virtue as the golden mean between extremes. Aristotle saw politics as the highest art, as all other pursuits are subservient to its goal of improving society. The state should aim to maximize

5310-589: The Ancient Greek philosophía (φιλοσοφία), literally, "the love of wisdom" Ancient Greek : φιλεῖν phileîn , "to love" and σοφία sophía , "wisdom". The scope of ancient Western philosophy included the problems of philosophy as they are understood today; but it also included many other disciplines, such as pure mathematics and natural sciences such as physics , astronomy , and biology ( Aristotle , for example, wrote on all of these topics). The pre-Socratic philosophers were interested in cosmology ;

5428-849: The Platonic Academy and Platonic philosophy . As Socrates had done, Plato identified virtue with knowledge . This led him to questions of epistemology on what knowledge is and how it is acquired. Socrates had several other students who also founded schools of philosophy. Two of these were short-lived: the Eretrian school , founded by Phaedo of Elis , and the Megarian school , founded by Euclid of Megara . Two others were long-lasting: Cynicism , founded by Antisthenes , and Cyrenaicism , founded by Aristippus . The Cynics considered life's purpose to live in virtue, in agreement with nature, rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, and fame, leading

5546-540: The Sophists comprised teachers of rhetoric who taught students to debate on any side of an issue. While as a group, they held no specific views, in general they promoted subjectivism and relativism . Protagoras , one of the most influential Sophist philosophers, claimed that "man is the measure of all things", suggesting there is no objective truth. This was also applied to issues of ethics, with Prodicus arguing that laws could not be taken seriously because they changed all

5664-432: The ontological argument , according to which God is by definition the greatest thing in conceivable, and since an existing thing is greater than a non-existing one, it must be that God exists or is not the greatest thing conceivable (the latter being by definition impossible). A refutation of this was offered by Gaunilo of Marmoutiers , who applied the same logic to an imagined island, arguing that somewhere there must exist

5782-433: The problem of evil , just war and what time is. On the problem of evil, he argued that evil was a necessary product of human free will . When this raised the issue of the incompatibility of free will and divine foreknowledge , both he and Boethius solved the issue by arguing that God did not see the future, but rather stood outside of time entirely. An influential school of thought was that of scholasticism , which

5900-484: The valuation of pure pleasure in Bentham's work, Mill divided pleasures into higher and lower kinds. Logic began a period of its most significant advances since the inception of the discipline, as increasing mathematical precision opened entire fields of inference to formalization in the work of George Boole and Gottlob Frege . Other philosophers who initiated lines of thought that would continue to shape philosophy into

6018-592: The 17th century, in figures such as Francisco Suárez and John of St. Thomas . During the Middle Ages, Western philosophy was also influenced by the Jewish philosophers Maimonides and Gersonides ; and the Muslim philosophers Alkindus , Alfarabi , Alhazen , Avicenna , Algazel , Avempace , Abubacer , and Averroes . The Renaissance ("rebirth") was a period of transition between the Middle Ages and modern thought, in which

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6136-589: The 20th century include: Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that began in the United States around 1870. It asserts that the truth of beliefs consists in their usefulness and efficacy rather than their correspondence with reality. Charles Sanders Peirce and William James were its co-founders and it was later modified by John Dewey as instrumentalism . Since the usefulness of any belief at any time might be contingent on circumstance, Peirce and James conceptualized final truth as something established only by

6254-524: The American Marxist biologists Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin (authors of The Dialectical Biologist ) and the German-American evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr , not a Marxist himself, have found agreement between dialectical principles and their own scientific outlooks, although Wan opined that Engels's "laws" of dialectics "in fact 'explain' nothing". Even some Marxists are critical of

6372-539: The Great 's army where Pyrrho was influenced by Buddhist teachings, most particularly the three marks of existence . After returning to Greece, Pyrrho started a new school of philosophy, Pyrrhonism , which taught that it is one's opinions about non-evident matters (i.e., dogma ) that prevent one from attaining ataraxia . To bring the mind to ataraxia , Pyrrhonism uses epoché ( suspension of judgment ) regarding all non-evident propositions. After Arcesilaus became head of

6490-566: The Pithia's claim. Socrates developed a critical approach, now called the Socratic method , to examine people's views. He focused on issues of human life: eudaimonia , justice , beauty , truth , and virtue . Although Socrates wrote nothing himself, two of his disciples, Plato and Xenophon , wrote about some of his conversations, although Plato also deployed Socrates as a fictional character in some of his dialogues. These Socratic dialogues display

6608-610: The Socratic method being applied to examine philosophical problems. Socrates's questioning earned him enemies who eventually accused him of impiety and corrupting the youth. For this, he was tried by the Athenian democracy, was found guilty, and was sentenced to death. Although his friends offered to help him escape from prison, Socrates chose to remain in Athens and abide by his principles. His execution consisted of drinking poison hemlock . He died in 399 BCE. After Socrates' death, Plato founded

6726-543: The Theory of Knowledge , 1977), and Frans H. van Eemeren and Rob Grootendorst ( pragma-dialectics , 1980s). One can include works of the communities of informal logic and paraconsistent logic . Building on theories of defeasible reasoning (see John L. Pollock ), systems have been built that define well-formedness of arguments, rules governing the process of introducing arguments based on fixed assumptions, and rules for shifting burden. Many of these logics appear in

6844-422: The academy, he adopted skepticism as a central tenet of Platonism , making Platonism nearly the same as Pyrrhonism . After Arcesilaus, Academic skepticism diverged from Pyrrhonism. The Academic skeptics did not doubt the existence of truth ; they just doubted that humans had the capacities for obtaining it. They based this position on Plato's Phaedo , sections 64–67, in which Socrates discusses how knowledge

6962-427: The accessibility of the former, arguing that it could in fact be accessed. The experience of will was how this reality was accessible, with the will underlying the whole of nature, with everything else being appearance. Whereas he believed the frustration of this will was the cause of suffering, Friedrich Nietzsche thought that the will to power was empowering, leading to growth and expansion, and therefore forming

7080-451: The avoidance of pain" as the ultimate goal of life, but noted that "We do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or of sensuality . . . we mean the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the mind". This brought hedonism back to the search for ataraxia . Another important strand of thought in post-Classical Western thought was the question of skepticism . Pyrrho of Elis , a Democritean philosopher, traveled to India with Alexander

7198-434: The basis of ethics. Jeremy Bentham established utilitarianism, which was a consequentialist ethic based on 'the greatest happiness for the greatest number', an idea taken from Cesare Beccaria . He believed that any act could be measured by its value in this regard through the application of felicific calculus . His associate James Mill's son John Stuart Mill subsequently took up his thought. However, in contrast to

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7316-512: The body, the implications of the new natural sciences for traditional theological topics such as free will and God, and the emergence of a secular basis for moral and political philosophy. These trends first distinctively coalesce in Francis Bacon 's call for a new, empirical program for expanding knowledge, and soon found massively influential form in the mechanical physics and rationalist metaphysics of René Descartes . Descartes's epistemology

7434-516: The change and motion of phenomena and ideas from less advanced to more advanced or from less complete to more complete. Dialectical negation refers to a stage of development in which a contradiction between two previous subjects gives rise to a new subject. In the Marxist view, dialectical negation is never an endpoint, but instead creates new conditions for further development and negation. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , writing several decades after Hegel's death, proposed that Hegel's dialectic

7552-441: The changes that successively result from them. Dialectic is one of the eight functional specialties Lonergan envisaged for theology to bring this discipline into the modern world. Lonergan believed that the lack of an agreed method among scholars had inhibited substantive agreement from being reached and progress from being made compared to the natural sciences. Karl Rahner , S.J., however, criticized Lonergan's theological method in

7670-539: The coast of Ionia, later lived in Croton in southern Italy ( Magna Graecia ). Pythagoreans hold that "all is number", giving formal accounts in contrast to the previous material of the Ionians. The discovery of consonant intervals in music by the group enabled the concept of harmony to be established in philosophy, which suggested that opposites could together give rise to new things. They also believed in metempsychosis ,

7788-421: The concept of apatheia to personal circumstances rather than social norms, and switched shameless flouting of the latter for a resolute fulfillment of social duties. The ideal of 'living in accordance with nature' also continued, with this being seen as the way to eudaimonia, which in this case was identified as the freedom from fears and desires and required choosing how to respond to external circumstances, as

7906-487: The core tenets of German idealism after the demise of British idealism. However, quite a few have embraced Hegelian dialectic, most notably Frankfurt School critical theorists , Alexandre Kojève , Jean-Paul Sartre (in his Critique of Dialectical Reason ), and Slavoj Žižek . A central theme of German idealism, the legitimacy of Kant's " Copernican revolution ", remains an important point of contention in 21st-century post-continental philosophy . Late modern philosophy

8024-524: The dialectic in this sense is used to understand "the total process of enlightenment, whereby the philosopher is educated so as to achieve knowledge of the supreme good, the Form of the Good". Logic, which could be considered to include dialectic, was one of the three liberal arts taught in medieval universities as part of the trivium ; the other elements were rhetoric and grammar . Based mainly on Aristotle ,

8142-433: The dialogues of Plato are examples of the Socratic dialectical method. The Socratic dialogues are a particular form of dialectic known as the method of elenchus (literally, "refutation, scrutiny" ) whereby a series of questions clarifies a more precise statement of a vague belief, logical consequences of that statement are explored, and a contradiction is discovered. The method is largely destructive, in that false belief

8260-605: The election of God for all humanity, every person is subject to both aspects of God's double predestination. Dialectic prominently figured in Bernard Lonergan 's philosophy, in his books Insight and Method in Theology . Michael Shute wrote about Lonergan's use of dialectic in The Origins of Lonergan's Notion of the Dialectic of History . For Lonergan, dialectic is both individual and operative in community. Simply described, it

8378-655: The emergence of new philosophies, including Pyrrhonism , Epicureanism , Stoicism , and Neopythagoreanism . Platonism also continued but came under new interpretations, particularly Academic skepticism in the Hellenistic period and Neoplatonism in the Imperial period. The traditions of Greek philosophy heavily influenced Roman philosophy. In Imperial times, Epicureanism and Stoicism were particularly popular. The various schools of philosophy proposed various and conflicting methods for attaining eudaimonia . For some schools, it

8496-860: The essence being a combination of matter and form, similar to the Aristotelian view. For humans, the soul is the essence. Also influenced by Plato, he saw the soul as unchangeable and independent of the body. Other Western philosophers from the Middle Ages include John Scotus Eriugena , Gilbert de la Porrée , Peter Lombard , Hildegard of Bingen , Albertus Magnus , Robert Grosseteste , Roger Bacon , Bonaventure , Peter John Olivi , Mechthild of Magdeburg , Robert Kilwardby , Henry of Ghent , Duns Scotus , Marguerite Porete , Dante Alighieri , Marsilius of Padua , William of Ockham , Jean Buridan , Nicholas of Autrecourt , Meister Eckhart , Catherine of Siena , Jean Gerson , and John Wycliffe . The medieval tradition of scholasticism continued to flourish as late as

8614-430: The father of Thomism , was immensely influential in medieval Christendom . He was influenced by newly discovered Aristotle , and aimed to reconcile his philosophy with Christian theology . Aiming to develop an understanding of the soul , he was led to consider metaphysical questions of substance , matter, form, and change. He defined a material substance as the combination of an essence and accidental features, with

8732-445: The finitude of the partial categories of understanding". For Hegel, even history can be reconstructed as a unified dialectic, the major stages of which chart a progression from self-alienation as servitude to self-unification and realization as the rational constitutional state of free and equal citizens. Marxist dialectic is a form of Hegelian dialectic which applies to the study of historical materialism . Marxist dialectic

8850-404: The first medieval philosopher to work on dialectics was Boethius (480–524). After him, many scholastic philosophers also made use of dialectics in their works, such as Abelard , William of Sherwood , Garlandus Compotista , Walter Burley , Roger Swyneshed, William of Ockham , and Thomas Aquinas . This dialectic (a quaestio disputata ) was formed as follows: The concept of dialectics

8968-499: The forces of Love and Strife, creating the mixtures of elements which form the world. Another view of the arche being acted upon by an external force was presented by his older contemporary Anaxagoras , who claimed that nous , the mind , was responsible for that. Leucippus and Democritus proposed atomism as an explanation for the fundamental nature of the universe. Jonathan Barnes called atomism "the culmination of early Greek thought". In addition to these philosophers,

9086-432: The future, final settlement of all opinion. Pragmatism attempted to find a scientific concept of truth that does not depend on personal insight (revelation) or reference to some metaphysical realm. It interpreted the meaning of a statement by the effect its acceptance would have on practice. Inquiry taken far enough is thus the only path to truth. For Peirce commitment to inquiry was essential to truth-finding, implied by

9204-421: The idea and hope that inquiry is not fruitless. The interpretation of these principles has been subject to discussion ever since. Peirce's maxim of pragmatism is, "Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object." Critics accused pragmatism falling victim to

9322-497: The key method and theory of the philosophy of nature, the second was the Soviet version of the philosophy of history. Soviet systems theory pioneer Alexander Bogdanov viewed Hegelian and materialist dialectic as progressive, albeit inexact and diffuse, attempts at achieving what he called tektology , or a universal science of organization. Dialectical naturalism is a term coined by American philosopher Murray Bookchin to describe

9440-468: The late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s. Transcendental idealism , advocated by Immanuel Kant, is the view that there are limits on what can be understood since there is much that cannot be brought under the conditions of objective judgment. Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason (1781) in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting approaches of rationalism and empiricism, and to establish

9558-605: The latter focusing on issues of epistemology, ethics, law and politics (more common in the English-speaking world). German philosophy exercised broad influence in this century, owing in part to the dominance of the German university system. German idealists , such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte , Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , and the members of Jena Romanticism ( Friedrich Hölderlin , Novalis , and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel ), transformed

9676-502: The margins of the legal texts. The medieval copyists at Bologna developed a typical script to enhance the legibility of both the main text and the glosses. The typically Bolognese script is called the Littera Bononiensis . Accursius 's Glossa ordinaria , the final standard redaction of these glosses, contains around 100,000 glosses. Accursius worked for decades on this task. There exists no critical edition of his glosses. In

9794-421: The medieval interest in metaphysics and logic, the humanists followed Petrarch in making humanity and its virtues the focus of philosophy. At the point of passage from Renaissance into early/classical modern philosophy, the dialogue was used as a primary style of writing by Renaissance philosophers, such as Giordano Bruno . The dividing line between what is classified as Renaissance versus modern philosophy

9912-516: The mind gave people the perception of cause and effect . Many other contributors were philosophers, scientists, medical doctors, and politicians. A short list includes Galileo Galilei , Pierre Gassendi , Blaise Pascal , Nicolas Malebranche , Antonie van Leeuwenhoek , Christiaan Huygens , Isaac Newton , Christian Wolff , Montesquieu , Pierre Bayle , Thomas Reid , Jean le Rond d'Alembert and Adam Smith . German idealism emerged in Germany in

10030-452: The nature and origin of the universe, while rejecting unargued fables in place for argued theory, i.e., dogma superseded reason, albeit in a rudimentary form. They were specifically interested in the arche (the cause or first principle) of the world. The first recognized philosopher, Thales of Miletus (born c.  625 BCE in Ionia ) identified water as the arche (claiming "all

10148-450: The need to address theological problems and to integrate the then-widespread sacred doctrines of Abrahamic religion ( Judaism , Christianity , and Islam ) with secular learning. Some problems discussed throughout this period are the relation of faith to reason , the existence and unity of God , the object of theology and metaphysics , the problems of knowledge, of universals, and of individuation. A prominent figure of this period

10266-409: The need to find a route from the private world of consciousness to the externally existing reality was widely accepted until the 20th century. A major issue for his thought remained in the mind–body problem , however. One solution to the problem was presented by Baruch Spinoza , who argued that the mind and the body are one substance . This was based on his view that God and the universe are one and

10384-436: The older historiography of the medieval learned law , the view developed that after the standard gloss had become fixed a generation of so-called commentators started to take over from the glossators. In fact, the early medieval legal scholars, too, wrote commentaries and lectures, but their main effort was indeed creating glosses. Most of the older glosses are accessible only in medieval manuscripts: modern editions of only

10502-454: The opportunities for the pursuit of reason and virtue through leisure, learning, and contemplation. Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great , who conquered much of the ancient Western world. Hellenization and Aristotelian philosophy have exercised considerable influence on almost all subsequent Western and Middle Eastern philosophers . The Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods saw the continuation of Aristotelianism and Cynicism , and

10620-611: The philosophical underpinnings of the political program of social ecology . Dialectical naturalism explores the complex interrelationship between social problems, and the direct consequences they have on the ecological impact of human society. Bookchin offered dialectical naturalism as a contrast to what he saw as the "empyrean, basically antinaturalistic dialectical idealism" of Hegel, and "the wooden, often scientistic dialectical materialism of orthodox Marxists". Neo-orthodoxy , in Europe also known as theology of crisis and dialectical theology,

10738-412: The philosophy of dialectical materialism is his theory of reflection, which presents human consciousness as a dynamic reflection of the objective material world that fully shapes its contents and structure. Later, Stalin's works on the subject established a rigid and formalistic division of Marxist–Leninist theory into dialectical materialism and historical materialism. While the first was supposed to be

10856-434: The process whereby the intellect passes from sensibles to intelligibles, rising from idea to idea until it finally grasps the supreme idea, the first principle which is the origin of all. The philosopher is consequently a "dialectician". In this sense, dialectic is a process of inquiry that does away with hypotheses up to the first principle. It slowly embraces multiplicity in unity. The philosopher Simon Blackburn wrote that

10974-510: The quality of life was seen as based on one's beliefs about it. An alternative view was presented by the Cyrenaics and the Epicureans . The Cyrenaics were hedonists and believed that pleasure was the supreme good in life, especially physical pleasure, which they thought more intense and more desirable than mental pleasures. The followers of Epicurus also identified "the pursuit of pleasure and

11092-399: The rationalists had believed that knowledge came from a priori reasoning, the empiricists had argued that it came from a posteriori sensory experience, Kant aimed to reconcile these views by arguing that the mind uses a priori understanding to interpret the a posteriori experiences. He had been inspired to take this approach by the philosophy of Hume, who argued that the mechanisms of

11210-478: The recovery of ancient Greek philosophical texts helped shift philosophical interests away from technical studies in logic, metaphysics, and theology towards eclectic inquiries into morality, philology, and mysticism. The study of the classics and the humane arts generally, such as history and literature, enjoyed a scholarly interest hitherto unknown in Christendom, a tendency referred to as humanism . Displacing

11328-485: The richness and diversity of reality. He rejected the notion that truth can be fully grasped through dialectical reasoning and offered a critique of dialectic, challenging its traditional framework and emphasizing the limitations of its approach to understanding reality. He expressed skepticism towards its methodology and implications in his work Twilight of the Idols : "I mistrust all systematizers and I avoid them. The will to

11446-471: The same, encompassing the totality of existence. In the other extreme, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , argued instead that the world was composed of numerous individual substances, called monads . Together, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz are considered influential early rationalists . In contrast to Descartes, Thomas Hobbes was a materialist who believed that everything was physical, and an empiricist who thought that all knowledge comes from sensation which

11564-410: The special area of artificial intelligence and law , though the computer scientists' interest in formalizing dialectic originates in a desire to build decision support and computer-supported collaborative work systems. Dialectic itself can be formalised as moves in a game, where an advocate for the truth of a proposition and an opponent argue. Such games can provide a semantics of logic , one that

11682-467: The specialized meaning of development by way of overcoming internal contradictions . Dialectical materialism , a theory advanced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , adapted the Hegelian dialectic into a materialist theory of history. The legacy of Hegelian and Marxian dialectics has been criticized by philosophers such as Karl Popper and Mario Bunge , who considered it unscientific. Dialectic implies

11800-651: The spirit of inquiry. In common cases, Socrates uses enthymemes as the foundation of his argument. For example, in the Euthyphro , Socrates asks Euthyphro to provide a definition of piety. Euthyphro replies that the pious is that which is loved by the gods. But, Socrates also has Euthyphro agreeing that the gods are quarrelsome and their quarrels, like human quarrels, concern objects of love or hatred. Therefore, Socrates reasons, at least one thing exists that certain gods love but other gods hate. Again, Euthyphro agrees. Socrates concludes that if Euthyphro's definition of piety

11918-791: The term "dialectics". For instance, Michael Heinrich wrote, "More often than not, the grandiose rhetoric about dialectics is reducible to the simple fact that everything is dependent upon everything else and is in a state of interaction and that it's all rather complicated—which is true in most cases, but doesn't really say anything." Since the late 20th century, European and American logicians have attempted to provide mathematical foundations for dialectic through formalisation, although logic has been related to dialectic since ancient times. There have been pre-formal and partially-formal treatises on argument and dialectic, from authors such as Stephen Toulmin ( The Uses of Argument , 1958), Nicholas Rescher ( Dialectics: A Controversy-Oriented Approach to

12036-650: The time, while Antiphon made the claim that conventional morality should only be followed when in society. The Classical period of ancient Greek philosophy centers on Socrates and the two generations of students who followed. Socrates experienced a life-changing event when his friend, Chaerephon visited the Oracle of Delphi where the Pythia told him that no one in Athens was wiser than Socrates . Learning of this, Socrates subsequently spent much of his life questioning anyone in Athens who would engage him, in order to investigate

12154-501: The transmigration of souls, or reincarnation . Parmenides argued that, unlike the other philosophers who believed the arche was transformed into multiple things, the world must be singular, unchanging and eternal, while anything suggesting the contrary was an illusion. Zeno of Elea formulated his famous paradoxes in order to support Parmenides' views about the illusion of plurality and change (in terms of motion), by demonstrating them to be impossible. An alternative explanation

12272-585: The universe has a singular cause which must therefore be a single mind. As such, Neoplatonism become essentially a religion , and had much impact on later Christian thought . Medieval philosophy roughly extends from the Christianization of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance. It is defined partly by the rediscovery and further development of classical Greek and Hellenistic philosophy , and partly by

12390-403: The use of the term. In dialectical theology the difference and opposition between God and human beings is stressed in such a way that all human attempts at overcoming this opposition through moral, religious or philosophical idealism must be characterized as 'sin'. In the death of Christ humanity is negated and overcome, but this judgment also points forwards to the resurrection in which humanity

12508-401: The word was used to denote an explanation of an unfamiliar word, but its scope gradually expanded to the more general sense of "commentary". The glossators used to write in the margins of the old texts ( glosa marginalis ) or between the lines ( glosa interlinearis - interlinear glosses). Later these were gathered into large collections, first copied as separate books, but also quickly written in

12626-504: The work of Kant by maintaining that the world is constituted by a rational or mind-like process, and as such is entirely knowable. Hegel argued that history was the dialectical journey of the Geist (universal mind) towards self-fulfilment and self-realization. The Geist's self-awareness is absolute knowledge, which itself brings complete freedom. His philosophy was based on absolute idealism , with reality itself being mental. His legacy

12744-534: The world existing as a result of being perceived . In contrast, the Cambridge Platonists continued to represent rationalism in Britain. In terms of political philosophy, arguments often started from arguing over the first principles of human nature through the thought experiment of what the world would look like without society, a scenario referred to as the state of nature . Hobbes believed that this would be

12862-477: Was Augustine of Hippo , one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity . Augustine adopted Plato's thought and Christianized it. His influence dominated medieval philosophy perhaps up to the end of era and the rediscovery of Aristotle's texts. Augustinianism was the preferred starting point for most philosophers up until the 13th century. Among the issues his philosophy touched upon were

12980-405: Was "a lifeless schema" imposed on various contents, whereas he saw his own dialectic as flowing out of "the inner life and self-movement" of the content itself. In the mid-19th century, Hegelian dialectic was appropriated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and retooled in what they considered to be a nonidealistic manner. It would also become a crucial part of later representations of Marxism as

13098-425: Was based on a method called Cartesian doubt , whereby only the most certain belief could act as the foundation for further inquiry, with each step to further ideas being as cautious and clear as possible. This led him to his famous maxim cogito ergo sum ('I think, therefore I exist'), though similar arguments had been made by earlier philosophers. This became foundational for much of further Western philosophy, as

13216-456: Was divided between the conservative Right Hegelians and radical Young Hegelians , with the latter including David Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach . Feuerbach argued for a materialist conception of Hegel's thought, inspiring Karl Marx . Arthur Schopenhauer was inspired by Kant and Indian philosophy . Accepting Kant's division of the world into the noumenal (the real) and phenomenal (the apparent) realities, he, nevertheless, disagreed on

13334-558: Was given new life at the start of the 19th century by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , whose dialectical model of nature and of history made dialectics a fundamental aspect of reality, instead of regarding the contradictions into which dialectics leads as evidence of the limits of pure reason, as Immanuel Kant had argued. Hegel was influenced by Johann Gottlieb Fichte 's conception of synthesis, although Hegel didn't adopt Fichte's "thesis–antithesis–synthesis" language except to describe Kant's philosophy: rather, Hegel argued that such language

13452-457: Was presented by Heraclitus , who claimed that everything was in flux all the time , famously pointing out that one could not step into the same river twice. Empedocles may have been an associate of both Parmenides and the Pythagoreans. He claimed the arche was in fact composed of multiple sources, giving rise to the model of the four classical elements . These in turn were acted upon by

13570-437: Was the first type of logic to attempt to categorize every valid syllogism . His epistemology comprised an early form of empiricism . Aristotle criticized Plato's metaphysics as being poetic metaphor, with its greatest failing being the lack of an explanation for change . Aristotle proposed the four causes model to explain change – material, efficient, formal, and final – all of which were grounded on what Aristotle termed

13688-541: Was through internal means, such as calmness, ataraxia (ἀταραξία), or indifference, apatheia (ἀπάθεια), which was possibly caused by the increased insecurity of the era. The aim of the Cynics was to live according to nature and against convention with courage and self-control. This was directly inspiring to the founder of Stoicism , Zeno of Citium , who took up the Cynic ideals of steadfastness and self-discipline, but applied

13806-498: Was to correctly finish their job. Hegel asserts that the twin aims of philosophy are to account for the contradictions apparent in human experience (which arise, for instance, out of the supposed contradictions between "being" and "not being"), and also simultaneously to resolve and preserve these contradictions by showing their compatibility at a higher level of examination ("being" and "not being" are resolved with "becoming"). This program of acceptance and reconciliation of contradictions

13924-602: Was to reach true knowledge, he was even willing to change his own views in order to arrive at the truth. The fundamental goal of dialectic, in this instance, was to establish a precise definition of the subject (in this case, rhetoric) and with the use of argumentation and questioning, make the subject even more precise. In the Gorgias , Socrates reaches the truth by asking a series of questions and in return, receiving short, clear answers. In Platonism and Neoplatonism, dialectic assumed an ontological and metaphysical role in that it became

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