Dialectical

Dialectical thinking
thinking
Bal Chandra Luitel
 In this presentation
• What is dialectical thinking?
• Characteristics
• Different types of dialectics
• Epistemology and ontology
• Uses of dialectical thinking
• Sources
 Dialectical thinking
• Triad/process: Thesis, Antithesis and
Synthesis
• Opposites co-exist within the same
phenomenon.
• Conflict and contradiction is normal.
• Change is  an internal process  based on
internal contradictions /friction.
• Change is the unity of opposites  
• Dialectical thinking is about looking for
alternatives and widening our horizon
 Characteristics
• Emphasis on change: The first
characteristic of dialectical thinking is
that it places all the emphasis on change.
• Usefulness of formal logic questioned: It
is quite often we can see that the same
phenomenon is different from its assumed
basic attributes. So formal logic may not
work in this situation.
• For dialectics it is not uncommon to say "A
is ~ A".
 Characteristics
• One of the very important characteristics
of dialectical thinking is the
interdependence of opposites. It does not
say one attribute is superior of the other
but only their viability in certain time and
context. For instance usefulness of light in
night time. No use of light, if there was no
dark/light
 Characteristics
• The interpenetration of opposites:
Opposites are regarded as relative
attributes: Love and hate, right and wrong,
good and bad.
• Opposites are embedded with phenomenon
itself. When we start thinking of good, we
also try to conceive of bad.
 Characteristics
• The unity of opposites: If we choose one
extreme it appears to be the other extreme
too. For instance, if we make darkness
absolute, we are blind - we can't see
anything. And if we make light absolute, we
are equally blind and unable to see.
• How about thinking about Shubert’s
curriculum images? Too much content
results in…
 Different types of
dialectic
• Eastern Dialectics: God of creator, order
and destroyer (Hinduism)
• Ian Stewart points out that the
relationship between the gods Shiva, "the
Untamed", and Vishnu is not the
antagonism between good and evil, but that
of the real principles of harmony and
discord which together underlie the whole
of existence (Wikipedia).
 Different types of
dialectics
• Buddhist dialectics: you and the world, illusion and
nirvana, multiple selves
• Socratic dialectics: Contradiction and cross-
examination of one’s claims
• Hegelian dialectics: Dialectical stages of
development: Thesis, antithesis and synthesis
• Marxist dialectics: Materialistic dialectics,
material/external world is the basis of forming
ideas…
 Epistemology and
ontology
• How about thinking ‘epistemology and
ontology’ as dialectics?
• Epistemology deals with the ways of
knowing while ontology deals with the
nature of reality…
• how we know comes from what we
perceive as the reality…
 Uses of dialectical
thinking in our research
• Research as writing
• Auto/representation
• Auto/method
• Self/other
• Auto/ethnography
• Dialectical logic in data interpretation
 Sources
• Rowan, J. (nd). Dialectical thinking.
http://www.gwiep.net/site/dialthnk.h
tm
• Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialecti
c