Ebook: Dialectics: a Classical Approach to Inquiry

Few ideas have played a more continuously prominent role throughout the history of philosophy than that of dialectic, which has figured on the philosophical agenda from the time of the Presocratics. This book explores the philosophical promise of dialectic, especially in its dialogical version associated with disputation, debate, and rational controversy. Its deliberations examine what lessons can be drawn to exhibit the utility of dialectical proceedings for the theory of knowledge in reminding us that the building up of knowledge is an interpersonally interactive enterprise subject to communal standards.

Nicholas Rescher is a German-American philosopher, polymath, and author, teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. He is chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science and was formerly chairman of the philosophy department.