Philosophy - The Dialectical Method :: miscellaneous

Philosophy - The Dialectical Method There are a lot many descriptions for the word dialectic. By viewing all of them what I have ended up concluding in the given context, i.e. Socrates’ Dialectical Method, is that: Dialectic is a variety of languages, conceivably a sort of a composition of the languages in this variety. The word comes from Ancient Greek dialektos, which is derived from dialegesthai, meaning to discourse, converse, and talk. By this root of the word, in this context, I deduce that Dialectics is a method in which people from different walks of life, contained by different personal philosophies (languages) are set together to discuss on a single word, sentence, thought, topic etc. explaining their personal views supported by logical reasons defending their argument. This discussion is meant to have all the possible view points on that particular subject with in a group of people and finally to deduce a definition for the subject which is acceptable by all the individuals involved. The ultimate goal for having Dialectic seems to search for the real the truth. Socratic Dialectical Method Well for this I think first we should know what nature Socrates had, it will help us knowing the uniqueness of Socrates’ method. Socrates was a man of the Periclean age, which witnessed one of the periodic â€Å"bankruptcies of science.† Cosmological speculation, which had been boldly pursued from the beginning of the 6th century, seemed to have led to a chaos of conflicting systems of thought. People had turned away from pursue of science and concentrated themselves not with truth but with making a successful human life. In this time of chaos and individualism, Socrates was the most realistic person in sight. He was always searching for more than the meanings of things already had. He wanted proof of what was defined, proof which would give logical reasons for it self. He was ‘an inquirer’, unsatisfied and still looking for truth. Unlike others he was not self-centered, always ready to be corrected. His nature of being broad minded reflected his way of teaching people, which actually seems to be learning by them. This is the beauty of his method, called as The Socratic Dialectical Method. Procedure Socrates did not call people towards him self, he went out towards them and asked them their views instead of lecturing and forcing his thoughts on them. It was a dialogue form discussion, where individuals brought up their view points on a particular subject set by Socrates.