Glossary

Dialectic

Any process by which an individual or a group of people advance knowledge towards to the "truth".

1. Socrates dialectic: Faced with a proposition, ask questions around the subject until a contradtiction arises. If that happens, we can discard the initial proposition as true and free our minds to work on a new proposition.

2. Scientific papers: Thesis-antithesis-syntesis (dialectic triad). We start with two statements that apparently are in contradiction. We work on both of them such that at the end we can discard one of them or accept both. In the latter, we are going to modify the statements (for example, adding more conditions to each one) such that they do not enter in contradiction anymore. This reasoning gives the synthesis, which becomes the new accepted truth.

   • T: The oxygen is a gas.
   • A: The oxygen is a liquid.
   • S: Under certain conditions of pression and temperature, oxygen can be a gas or a liquid.

Logic

A rigorous method to test the validity of propositions. Every true proposition can be derived through a logical reasoning over accepted premisses.

Danger

It is not possible to derive a false proposition from true premisses. But one could derive a true proposition from false premisses.

• P1. They only sell white trousers at H&M.
• P2. Daniel only buy his trousers from H&M.
• C. Daniel owns a white trouser.

Rhetoric

Is the art of persuasion. Rhetoric tries to answer the following question: Given a message and an audience, what is the best way to deliver my message to the audience? What is the best way to convince them of what I am saying.

Sofism

Style of argumentation in which the goal is to trick someone towards a proposition that it is false.

Eristic

Refers to an argument that aims to successfully dispute another's argument, rather than searching for the truth.

Dialectic eristic

Ironic term created by Schopenhauer to denounce that most of the dialectic methods are not committed to the truth but instead to win a debate. The dialectic eristic consists of strategems to win a debate with disregard of the truth.

Dialectic eristic x sofism

The sofists intentionaly tries to convince something is true while themselves know that are false. This is different from the goal of the eristics, which simply wants to win the debate for one reason or another. Usually, the eristics do not know the truth and they use the dialectic eristic to defend their ideas in a debate.

The eristic tries to provide you with tools to win a debate, independently if you are right or wrong. It is based on the idea that, during a live debate, the most important thing is to pass the impression that your position is the right one. Usually, if a debate is worthy, the topic is way complex to be treated in a rigorous way. Therefore, the idea of the debate itself if to attract people to your side. They will read your rigorous material later if they were convinced.