>[!abstract] >**Dialectics** are a type of philosophical thinking that seeks the truth through the confrontation of opposing forces (thesis and antithesis) and their resolution (synthesis). Rather than eliminating them, dialectical thinking embraces complexity, conflict, and contradictions, and treats them as generative so that a higher-order understanding emerges over time. > >Plato used the Socratic method, whose series of questions and answers to expose ignorance and move to higher truths were a precursor to the dialectic method. Hegel saw dialectics as the engine of history, which develops through conflict and resolution. Marx applied dialectics to material conditions in order to explain societal change as a series of class struggles. Kant used dialectics to illustrate that pure reason devoid of experiential thinking tends to reach contradictions (antinomies). >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): — >- **West** (similar): — >- **East** (different): [[Rhetoric]] >- **South** (downstream): —