Introduction to Dialectics
What is Dialectics? Its definition as the science of correct thinking, its formal and material objects, its importance, and its three-part division.
Dialectics is defined as the practical science of correct thinking — not of true thinking (which belongs to Criteriology) but of formally valid thinking. Its formal object is correctness or legitimacy of inference; its material object is the three mental operations: simple apprehension (the idea), judgment, and reasoning. Logic does not create the rules of thought but discovers and codifies them, making the mind sharper and more consistent. The treatise divides into three Books corresponding to the three operations of the mind: Book I (The Idea — its nature, classification, and expression in terms, definitions, and divisions), Book II (The Judgment — its nature and expression in propositions with their mutual relations), and Book III (Reasoning — the syllogism in all its forms, fallacies, and the appendix on reduction).
1. Definition
Dialectics is the practical science of correct thinking.
a) Dialectics is a science. A science is a relatively complete and systematically arranged body of related facts (truths or laws) together with their hows and whys, their causes or reasons. Dialectics is a science because it sets forth, in an orderly, systematic, and complete manner, the laws which govern correct thinking, and it shows how knowledge of these laws is achieved, and why these laws must be accepted as valid.
b) Dialectics is a practical science. A science that presents facts which enrich knowledge, but which do not directly imply laws or norms for the guidance of thought or action, is called a speculative science. A science that presents facts from which directive norms or laws are immediately derived is called a practical science. The function of a speculative science is primarily cultural; that of a practical science is primarily directive. Dialectics is a practical science because the study of its data causes to emerge a body of laws by which the mind must be directed in order to think consistently and correctly. These laws are called the Laws of Thought; hence Dialectics is sometimes defined as the Science of the Laws of Thought.
c) Dialectics is a science of thinking. By thinking we mean reasoning, working out an implication, drawing a conclusion, inferring a consequence. The word thinking is used in no loose sense here — not as “having an opinion,” nor as remembrance or pensive recollection. Nor do we confuse thinking with knowing. Thinking is only one of the processes by which knowing is achieved. We may know a thing by direct sensation, as we know that it is raining. We may know a thing by direct grasp of the understanding, without having to “think it out,” as we know that a totality is greater than any of its parts. But when we come to know a thing by thinking, we have worked the thing out by studious and progressive steps of mental activity. Such thinking is called reasoning or discursive thought; it connects up data and moves from point to point in order to reach a final conclusion.
d) Dialectics is the science of correct thinking. Correctness means right order, consistency, legitimacy of procedure, justifiability of inference. It does not mean truth. Consider:
All animals are rational. A lion is an animal. Therefore a lion is rational.
You may object that the first premise is false. That is not the point for Dialectics. Take the statement as given. Ask only whether the conclusion is necessarily drawn from the premises as given. Dialectics asks but a single question: Is the conclusion necessarily inferred from the premises as given? If yes, the reasoning — the thinking — is correct. Dialectics does not investigate the truth of the data supplied to it, nor the certainty with which such data are known.
Dialectics is therefore the science of correct thinking, not of true and certain thinking. The science of true and certain thinking is called Epistemology, or more accurately, Criteriology. Dialectics (which looks to correctness in thinking) and Criteriology (which looks to truth and certainty) are supplementary: together they make up the Science of Logic. Dialectics is sometimes called Formal Logic; Criteriology, Material Logic. In modern usage the simple term Logic ordinarily means Formal Logic or Dialectics.
2. Object
The special and immediate aim of a science is called its Formal Object. The Formal Object of Dialectics is correctness in thinking. The things with which a science deals in order to achieve its Formal Object constitute the Material Object of that science. The Material Object of Dialectics is the various mental acts that make up the thinking process.
No two sciences can have the same Formal Object, though several may share the same Material Object. Anatomy and Hygiene both deal with the organs of the human body (same Material Object), but Anatomy studies their structure while Hygiene studies their proper functioning (distinct Formal Objects). Similarly, Dialectics and Criteriology both study the mental operations but with different Formal Objects: correctness in the one, truth and certainty in the other.
The line of demarcation between sciences that share the same subject-matter is discerned in the light of the famous axiom: Sciences are distinguished one from another by their Formal Objects.
3. Importance
One may object: “I am equipped by nature for thinking things out with clearness and consistency. Why study Dialectics when I already possess what it proposes to give me?”
It is true that we possess a natural power for reasoning, called Natural Logic. But Natural Logic is not sufficient for all the requirements of an educated person. One may have a fine ear for music and yet play “by air” without being a musician. A keen mind with large natural logical endowment still requires the training of Dialectics in order to make ready and just analyses of complicated argument, or to penetrate easily and surely to the exact point of fallacy in an unjustified inference. Dialectics tends to perfect Natural Logic, to make it smoother, more orderly and consistent, more keen and penetrating.
A knowledge of the mere rules of Dialectics will not make a keen reasoner, any more than theoretical knowledge of tools will make a good mechanician. But Dialectics furnishes the technique of keen reasoning to anyone who will diligently practise it.
How much harm is done in the world by faulty reasoning — in matters of mind, of religion, of morals, of politics! A knowledge of Dialectics, made usable by unfailing practice, will enable one to analyse fallacies and not only to declare them fallacious but to show precisely where, how, and why they are fallacious.
4. Division
The mental operations may be reduced to three major processes:
a) The first mental process is the act by which the mind grasps or apprehends a reality and knows it essentially. This is called Simple Apprehension, and its product is the Idea.
b) The second mental operation is the act by which the mind, comparing two ideas, notices their relation and pronounces them in agreement or disagreement. This is called Judgment.
c) The third mental operation is the act by which the mind infers or draws out an explicit judgment implicitly contained in other judgments. This is called Inference or Reasoning.
These three operations make up the Material Object of Dialectics, and by studying them we learn the mode of the mind’s functioning, and are enabled to state the laws which must govern the mind if it is to act correctly.
Our study will deal with these three operations in three Books:
| Book | Subject | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| Book First | The Idea | I. The Idea Itself · II. The Idea Expressed · III. The Idea Explained |
| Book Second | The Judgment | I. Judgment Itself · II. Judgment Expressed |
| Book Third | Reasoning | I. Reasoning Itself · II. Reasoning Expressed · III. Fallacies to Avoid |