The Art of Controversy.
Preliminary: Logic and Dialectic.
By the ancients, Logic and Dialectic were used as synonymous terms; although λογίζεσθαι, "to think over, to consider, to calculate," and διαλέγεσθαι, "to converse," are two very different things.
The name Dialectic was, as we are informed by Diogenes Laertius, first used by Plato; and in the Phædrus, Sophist, Republic, bk. vii., and elsewhere, we find that by Dialectic he means the regular employment of the reason, and skill in the practice of it. Aristotle also uses the word in this sense; but, according to Laurentius Valla, he was the first to use Logic too in a similar way.[1] Dialectic, therefore, seems to be an older word than Logic. Cicero and Quintilian use the words in the same general signification.[2]
- ↑ He speaks of δυσχερείαι λογικαὶ: that is, "difficult points," πρότασις λογικὴ, ἀπορία λογικὴ.
- ↑ Cic. in Lucullo: Dialecticam inventam esse, veri et falsi quasi disceptatricem. Topica, c. 2: Stoici enim judicandi vias diligenter persecuti sunt, ea scientia, quum Dialecticen appellant. Quint., lib. ii., 12: Itaque hæc pars dialecticae, sive illam disputatricem dicere malimus; and with him this latter word appears to be the Latin equivalent for Dialectic. (So far according to "Petri Rami dialectica, Audomari Talaei praelectionibus illustrata". 1569.)
