WHAT IS DIALECTIC?

Simply put, dialectic is the art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.

The original Socratic Dialectic was more of a process of interrogation whereby Socrates will ask an unsuspecting Athenian a simple question like "What is courage?". If that person was to answer with some common-sense reply, he would be entrapped by Socrates into answering a series of questions, usually culminating in the person contradicting himself, and finally acknowledging that he did not know what he was talking about.  His aim is to teach us the importance of continuous critical reflection on ethics and the good life and to warn that nothing is more dangerous for society and the individual than the suspension of independent critical judgement.

Hegel had a different take on this dialectical process. He believed that ultimate truth is slowly uncovered through the unfolding evolution of the history of ideas. This unfolding is dictated by a process of continuous interaction between thesis and antithesis, resulting in a synthesis which becomes itself the new thesis. The process then repeats itself till the ultimate truth of an absolute universal mind is attained.  This dialectical progress of concepts will drive social and political change.

Karl Marx also had a different variation of this theme.  His dialectical materialism is a description of the 3-cornered conflict between the economic classes of landowners and the middle class on the one hand producing a synthesized class of capitalistic industrial employers and the antithetical class of the proletariat or worker class.  The end-result is socialism, which according to him, is the most efficient way for economic production and survival.  It is these economic forces that determine the development of human ideas.   

Our present concern is to establish a common platform and language for dialogue. Despite the modern tendency to celebrate a diversity of voices and a respect for all viewpoints, such a state of affairs is not tenable in the long run. No meaningful communication can result if all discussions lead to an unsatisfactory paralytic condition called "we agree to disagree"!