Dialectic

Dialectic is the highest science, ascending from hypothesis to the unhypothetical first principle through pure thought.

Dialectic reasons from commonly held opinions and is useful for training, debate, and clearing the ground for science, but it is not science itself.

Dialectic is the soul's discipline of purification and ascent, rising through the intelligible order to the One.

Dialectic is the discipline of rational disputation, useful for detecting fallacy and defending truth, but subordinate to faith.

Dialectic and disputation serve theology by clarifying objections and sharpening the statement of truth, though they cannot prove articles of faith.

The syllogistic dialectic of the Schools is barren; only induction from observed nature can produce real knowledge.

Transcendental dialectic exposes the illusions of reason when it tries to know what lies beyond all possible experience.

Dialectic is the self-movement of the Concept through contradiction; thesis, antithesis, and synthesis are the rhythm of all reality.

Dialectic is materialist, not idealist: real contradictions in economic life drive historical change.