Dialectic

Dialectic or the dialectical method in its original form is a discourse between two person, each embodying a different idea or opinion about a subject aiming to establish the truth about the subject at hand.

=Hegelian Dialectic=

Hegel built upon the dialectical method as he took it from Kant. Thesis, followed by an Antithesis and the tension between those two resolved by a Snythesis. Nevertheless, Hegel never employed this exact terminology and rather referred to Abstract-Negative-Concrete. He saw change to be driven by a dialectical process, "in which a given state of being or idea contains within it the seeds of an opposite state of being or opposing idea. The resolution of the conflict produces yet another state of being or idea. This synthesis, in turn, forms the basis of a new contradiction, thus continuing the process of change." Hegel further believed that history would eventually reach a perfected stage oriented at the idea of an 'Absolute Spirit' - God. Applied to the Hegelian Dialectic this means that every idea (thesis) that comes up during the history of mankind is an approximation but still a distortion of the idea of the absolute spirit, from which an opposing idea (antithesis) emanates. The two ideas merge to form the synthesis and on that basis a new thesis can form that is already closer to the ideas of the absolute spirit, and thus change approximates humanity to the perfection of God.

The rest of this article on Dialectic is based on the Wikipedia article Hegelian Dialectic.

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