Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Searching for Bonhoeffer: "The Rise of Bonehoeffer"

Pastor Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer




EPISODE 01: Searching for Bonhoeffer
The Rise of Bonehoeffer Podcast



Sep 17, 2024Join Dr. Jeffrey Pugh & Dr. Tripp Fuller as they delve into the complex life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The story flashes forward to a powerful juxtaposition: on February 1, 1933, two days after Hitler became Chancellor, both men addressed Germany. Hitler promised to restore national pride, while Bonhoeffer warned against creating an idol out of a leader. How did Bonhoeffer come to see the Nazi threat while so many others didn't? This episode begins the story by turning to his early life, his burgeoning critiques of National Socialism, and how his family, education, and travels deeply influenced his evolving theology. Discover how Bonhoeffer's early liberal theological perspectives, grappling with German nationalism, eventually led him to challenge authoritarianism and develop a profound ethical and theological stance against the Nazi regime.

Want to learn more about Bonhoeffer? Join our open online companion class, The Rise of Bonhoeffer, and get access to full interviews from the Bonhoeffer scholars, participate in deep-dive sessions with Tripp and Jeff, unpack curated readings from Bonhoeffer, send in your questions, and join the online community of fellow Bonhoeffer learners. The class is donation-based.


Featured Scholars in the Episode include:

Victoria J. Barnett served from 2004-2014 as one of the general editors of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, the English translation series of Bonhoeffer's complete works. She has lectured and written extensively about the Holocaust, particularly about the role of the German churches. In 2004 she began directing the Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum until her retirement.

Andrew Root is Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker: A Theological Vision for Discipleship and Life Together, Faith Formation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, The Congregation in a Secular Age, Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Church after Innovation, and The End of Youth Ministry? He is a frequent speaker and hosts the popular and influential When Church Stops Working podcast.

Robert Vosloo is professor in Systematic theology at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and a senior researcher at the Beyers Naudé Center for Public Theology at the same institution. His most recent book is entitled Reforming Memory: Essays on South African Church and Theological History.

Gary Dorrien is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University. He is also the author of Anglican Identities: Logos Idealism, Imperial Whiteness, Commonweal Ecumenism, Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American Tradition, American Democratic Socialism and In a Post-Hegelian Spirit: Philosophical Theology as Idealistic Discontent.


Who Is Dietrich Bonhoeffer?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer remains one of the 20th century's greatest theologians and witnesses to radical faith. He was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has been described as a modern classic.

Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison and later Flossenbürg concentration camp. After being accused of being associated with the July 20th plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was quickly tried and then hanged on April 9, 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing, 21 days before Adolf Hitler committed suicide.


ASYNCHRONOUS CLASS: You can participate fully without being present at any specific time. Replays are available on the Class Resource Page.

COST: A course like this is typically offered for $250 or more, but we invite you to contribute whatever you can (including $0) to help make this possible for everyone!


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AI Overview
Dialectical theology is a Protestant theological approach that emphasizes the difference between God and humans; and that God is unknowable to humans. It's also known as neo-orthodoxy or theology of crisis.

Here are some characteristics of dialectical theology:
  • Transcendence of God - Dialectical theology focuses on God's transcendence and the idea that God is beyond human comprehension.
  • Opposition between God and humans - Dialectical theology emphasizes the difference between God and humans, and that humans' attempts to overcome this difference are "sin".
  • Faith over reason - Dialectical theology holds that God is unknowable to humans through reason, and that faith must replace reason.
  • Paradoxical nature of Christian existence - Dialectical theology emphasizes the paradoxes and ambiguities of Christian existence.
  • Reaction to liberal theology - Dialectical theology developed after World War I as a reaction against 19th-century liberal theology.
  • Reevaluation of Reformation teachings - Dialectical theology re-evaluated the teachings of the Reformation, which had been in decline since the late 18th century.
German theologian Karl Barth introduced dialectical theology in his 1919 Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.
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AI Overview
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's dialectic theology is based on a number of ideas, including:
Lutheranism
Bonhoeffer's theology is grounded in the objective Word of God in Christ, and he summarized his own view of the human situation as "simul justus et peccator" (both justified and a sinner).
Costly grace
Bonhoeffer differentiated between "cheap grace" and "costly grace" in his book The Cost of Discipleship. "Cheap grace" is the grace that Lutheranism has tended to preach, while "costly grace" demands obedience and true discipleship.
Christology
Bonhoeffer's Christology begins with the assertion of Christ as the authoritative Logos of God. This high Christology allowed him to oppose Nazi policies that violated the command of Christ.
Revelation
Bonhoeffer believed that God's truth is revealed even through fallible words spoken or written by human instruments, such as the apostles.
Church and State
Bonhoeffer believed that Church and State should limit each other in one reality under Christ.
Theology of grace
Bonhoeffer embraced Barth's theology of grace revealed in Jesus Christ as the Word of God.
Dialectical reading of Paul
Bonhoeffer realized that his dialectical reading of Paul was open to abuses, as evident in the Lutheran church of his day.

 

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Study Resources



A Theology of Divine Calling in Light of Karl Barth, A.N. ...
Scholarship @ Claremont
https://scholarship.claremont.edu › viewcontent
by KTC Cheung · 2022 — The theology/philosophy of Karl Barth, A. N. Whitehead, and Meister Eckhart is utilized. They represent three distinctive theological forms: revelational, ...

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the most significant Protestant theologians of the twentieth century, a legacy sealed by his imprisonment in a German concentration camp and eventual execution. His resistance against Nazism and pivotal role in the Confessing Church movement have been key points of illumination for many on the nature of Christian political witness and action. Millions have been inspired by his rich reflections on the Christian life, especially his beloved works on discipleship and ethics. As a professor, seminary leader, and ecumenical theologian, Bonhoeffer's work also profoundly shaped academic theology, especially systematic theology, and the life of the church.




Using the acclaimed Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English translation and adapted to a more accessible format, these new editions of Discipleship, Ethics, Letters and Papers from Prison, and Life Together feature the latest translations of Bonhoeffers works, supplemental material from Victoria J. Barnett, and insightful introductions by Geffrey B. Kelly, Clifford J. Green, and John W. de Gruchy.

Originally published in 1937, Discipleship soon became a classic exposition of what it means to follow Christ in a modern world beset by a dangerous and criminal government.

Life Together gathers Bonhoeffers 1938 reflections on the character of Christian community, based on the common life experienced at the Finkenwalde Seminary and in the Brothers House there.

Ethics embodies the culmination of Dietrich Bonhoeffers theological and personal odyssey and is one of the most important works of Christian ethics of the last century.

Letters and Papers from Prison presents the full array of Bonhoeffers 19431945 prison letters and theological writings, introducing his novel ideas of religionless Christianity, his theological appraisal of Christian doctrines, and his sturdy faith in the face of uncertainty and doubt.

This four-volume set of Bonhoeffers classic works allows all readers to appreciate the cogency and relevance of his vision.

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Karl Barth, 1965

BRITANNICA
World War I to the present - European Lutheranism

At the beginning of the 20th century, European Lutheranism remained divided between liberal and conservative wings. It was also marked by varying degrees of loyalty toward the 16th-century Lutheran confessions. The experience of World War I, which was widely understood by theologians as demonstrating the bankruptcy of optimistic theological liberalism, triggered both a conservative reaction and an interest in interconfessional cooperation.

Most Lutheran theologians followed the general reorientation of Protestant theology away from liberalism and toward a synthesis between religion and culture, theology and philosophy, and faith and science. Known as “dialectic theology” in Europe and “neoorthodoxy” in North America, this movement emphasized the “otherness” of God and the pivotal importance of the Word of God. The key theologian of neoorthodoxy was the Reformed theologian Karl Barth of Germany and Switzerland. As Barth’s theological premises, which related all divine revelation to Jesus Christ, became increasingly clear [other more liberal] Lutheran theologians such as Werner Elert and Paul Althaus developed an analogous conservative Lutheran perspective based on a traditional understanding of Martin Luther’s thought.

The end of World War I also brought the disestablishment of the Lutheran churches as state churches in Germany. The constitution of the Weimar Republic provided for the separation of church and state, though it granted Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches continued modest privileges. Unhappiness with the Weimar Republic, along with the political conservativeness of most Lutheran leaders and Luther’s concept of the orders of creation (see below Church and state), contributed to the acceptance of Nazi notions by many Lutherans when Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in January 1933.

The ensuing crisis in the Lutheran churches in Germany arose as a result of the efforts of one pro-Nazi church, the German Christians (Deutsche Christen), to obtain control of the Lutheran regional synods in Germany. The German Christians propounded a Christianity devoid of any Jewish influence (they rejected the Old Testament and declared Jesus to have been Aryan); they also advocated a single, centralized Protestant church in Germany, an objective that contradicted the long-standing tradition of autonomous regional synods but was subtly supported by the Nazi government.

In 1934 Lutheran church leaders and theologians joined Reformed leaders to form the Pastors’ Emergency League, out of which came the Barmen Declaration (see Barmen, Synod of). This statement affirmed traditional Protestant doctrine and led to the formation of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche), which comprised pastors and congregations loyal to traditional confessional standards. The remainder of the decade was marked by continued theological and political confrontation between the confessionally minded camp and the German Christians. This controversy, known as the German Church Struggle, led a minority of Lutheran church leaders, such as Martin Niemöller, a decorated World War I submarine captain, to question the legitimacy of the Nazi regime; some, including the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even became active in the anti-Nazi opposition.

By the middle of the 20th century, European Lutheranism continued to enjoy privileged status in several traditionally Lutheran countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany). Regular church attendance, however, was declining, and more and more people formally left the church. The number of church members declined slowly during the first three decades of the century, dwindled dramatically in Germany during Nazi rule, and continued to decline through the rest of the century.


The Theology and Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019
Presenter: Professor Lori Brandt,
Hale of Augsburg University


Dialectics




Dialectics

*For varieties of language, see Dialect.

Dialectic (Ancient Greek: διαλεκτική, dialektikḗ; German: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argumentation. Dialectic resembles debate, but the concept excludes subjective elements such as emotional appeal and rhetoric.[1] It has its origins in ancient philosophy and continued to be developed in the Middle Ages.

Hegelianism refigured "dialectic" to no longer refer to a literal dialogue. Instead, the term takes on the specialized meaning of development by way of overcoming internal contradictionsDialectical materialism, a theory advanced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, adapted the Hegelian dialectic into a materialist theory of history. The legacy of Hegelian and Marxian dialectics has been criticized by philosophers, such as Karl Popper and Mario Bunge, who considered it unscientific.

Dialectic implies a developmental process and so does not fit naturally within classical logic. Nevertheless, some twentieth-century logicians have attempted to formalize it. In the field of education, the dialectic approach may be contrasted with the didactic method.

History

There are a variety of meanings of dialectic or dialectics within Western philosophy.

Classical philosophy

In classical philosophy, dialectic (διαλεκτική) is a form of reasoning based upon dialogue of arguments and counter-arguments, advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses). The outcome of such a dialectic might be the refutation of a relevant proposition, or a synthesis, a combination of the opposing assertions, or a qualitative improvement of the dialogue.[2][3]

The term "dialectic" owes much of its prestige to its role in the philosophies of Socrates and Plato, in the Greek Classical period (5th to 4th centuries BC). Aristotle said that it was the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea who invented dialectic, of which the dialogues of Plato are examples of the Socratic dialectical method.[4]

Socratic method

The Socratic dialogues are a particular form of dialectic known as the method of elenchus (literally, "refutation, scrutiny"[5]) whereby a series of questions clarifies a more precise statement of a vague belief, logical consequences of that statement are explored, and a contradiction is discovered. The method is largely destructive, in that false belief is exposed and only constructive in that this exposure may lead to further search for truth.[6] The detection of error does not amount to a proof of the antithesis. For example, a contradiction in the consequences of a definition of piety does not provide a correct definition. The principal aim of Socratic activity may be to improve the soul of the interlocutors, by freeing them from unrecognized errors, or indeed, by teaching them the spirit of inquiry.

In common cases, Socrates uses enthymemes as the foundation of his argument.[citation needed]

For example, in the Euthyphro, Socrates asks Euthyphro to provide a definition of piety. Euthyphro replies that the pious is that which is loved by the gods. But, Socrates also has Euthyphro agreeing that the gods are quarrelsome and their quarrels, like human quarrels, concern objects of love or hatred. Therefore, Socrates reasons, at least one thing exists that certain gods love but other gods hate. Again, Euthyphro agrees. Socrates concludes that if Euthyphro's definition of piety is acceptable, then there must exist at least one thing that is both pious and impious (as it is both loved and hated by the gods)—which Euthyphro admits is absurd. Thus, Euthyphro is brought to a realization by this dialectical method that his definition of piety is not sufficiently meaningful.

In another example, in Plato's Gorgias, dialectic occurs between Socrates, the Sophist Gorgias, and two men, Polus and Callicles. Because Socrates' ultimate goal was to reach true knowledge, he was even willing to change his own views in order to arrive at the truth. The fundamental goal of dialectic, in this instance, was to establish a precise definition of the subject (in this case, rhetoric) and with the use of argumentation and questioning, make the subject even more precise. In the Gorgias, Socrates reaches the truth by asking a series of questions and in return, receiving short, clear answers.

Plato

In Platonism and Neoplatonism, dialectic assumed an ontological and metaphysical role in that it became the process whereby the intellect passes from sensibles to intelligibles, rising from idea to idea until it finally grasps the supreme idea, the first principle which is the origin of all. The philosopher is consequently a "dialectician".[7] In this sense, dialectic is a process of inquiry that does away with hypotheses up to the first principle.[8] It slowly embraces multiplicity in unity. The philosopher Simon Blackburn wrote that the dialectic in this sense is used to understand "the total process of enlightenment, whereby the philosopher is educated so as to achieve knowledge of the supreme good, the Form of the Good".[9]

Medieval philosophy

Logic, which could be considered to include dialectic, was one of the three liberal arts taught in medieval universities as part of the trivium; the other elements were rhetoric and grammar.[10][11][12][13]

Based mainly on Aristotle, the first medieval philosopher to work on dialectics was Boethius (480–524).[14] After him, many scholastic philosophers also made use of dialectics in their works, such as Abelard,[15] William of Sherwood,[16] Garlandus Compotista,[17] Walter Burley, Roger Swyneshed, William of Ockham,[18] and Thomas Aquinas.[19]

This dialectic (a quaestio disputata) was formed as follows:

  1. The question to be determined ("It is asked whether...");
  2. A provisory answer to the question ("And it seems that...");
  3. The principal arguments in favor of the provisory answer;
  4. An argument against the provisory answer, traditionally a single argument from authority ("On the contrary...");
  5. The determination of the question after weighing the evidence ("I answer that...");
  6. The replies to each of the initial objections. ("To the first, to the second etc., I answer that...")

Modern philosophy

The concept of dialectics was given new life at the start of the 19th century by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, whose dialectical model of nature and of history made dialectics a fundamental aspect of reality, instead of regarding the contradictions into which dialectics leads as evidence of the limits of pure reason, as Immanuel Kant had argued.[20][21] Hegel was influenced by Johann Gottlieb Fichte's conception of synthesis, although Hegel didn't adopt Fichte's "thesis–antithesis–synthesis" language except to describe Kant's philosophy: rather, Hegel argued that such language was "a lifeless schema" imposed on various contents, whereas he saw his own dialectic as flowing out of "the inner life and self-movement" of the content itself.[22]

In the mid-19th century, Hegelian dialectic was appropriated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and retooled in what they considered to be a nonidealistic manner. It would also become a crucial part of later representations of Marxism as a philosophy of dialectical materialism. These representations often contrasted dramatically and led to vigorous debate among different Marxist groups.[23]

Hegelian dialectic

The Hegelian dialectic describes changes in the forms of thought through their own internal contradictions into concrete forms that overcome previous oppositions.[24]

This dialectic is sometimes presented in a threefold manner, as first stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus, as comprising three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis.[25][26] Although, Hegel opposed these terms.[27]

By contrast, the terms abstractnegative, and concrete suggest a flaw or an incompleteness in any initial thesis. For Hegel, the concrete must always pass through the phase of the negative, that is, mediation. This is the essence of what is popularly called Hegelian dialectics.[28]

To describe the activity of overcoming the negative, Hegel often used the term Aufhebung, variously translated into English as "sublation" or "overcoming", to conceive of the working of the dialectic. Roughly, the term indicates preserving the true portion of an idea, thing, society, and so forth, while moving beyond its limitations. What is sublated, on the one hand, is overcome, but, on the other hand, is preserved and maintained.[29]

As in the Socratic dialectic, Hegel claimed to proceed by making implicit contradictions explicit: each stage of the process is the product of contradictions inherent or implicit in the preceding stage. On his view, the purpose of dialectics is "to study things in their own being and movement and thus to demonstrate the finitude of the partial categories of understanding".[30]

For Hegel, even history can be reconstructed as a unified dialectic, the major stages of which chart a progression from self-alienation as servitude to self-unification and realization as the rational constitutional state of free and equal citizens.

Marxist dialectic

Marxist dialectic is a form of Hegelian dialectic which applies to the study of historical materialism. Marxist dialectic is thus a method by which one can examine social and economic behaviors. It is the foundation of the philosophy of dialectical materialism, which forms the basis of historical materialism.

In the Marxist tradition, "dialectic" refers to regular and mutual relationships, interactions, and processes in nature, society, and human thought.[31]: 257 

A dialectical relationship is a relationship in which two phenomena or ideas mutually impact each other, leading to development and negation.[31]: 257  Development refers to the change and motion of phenomena and ideas from less advanced to more advanced or from less complete to more complete.[31]: 257  Dialectical negation refers to a stage of development in which a contradiction between two previous subjects gives rise to a new subject.[31]: 257  In the Marxist view, dialectical negation is never an endpoint, but instead creates new conditions for further development and negation.[31]: 257 

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, writing several decades after Hegel's death, proposed that Hegel's dialectic is too abstract.[32] Against this, Marx presented his own dialectic method, which he claimed to be "direct opposite" of Hegel's method.[33]

Marxist dialectics is exemplified in Das Kapital. As Marx explained dialectical materialism,

it includes in its comprehension an affirmative recognition of the existing state of things, at the same time, also, the recognition of the negation of that state, of its inevitable breaking up; because it regards every historically developed social form as in fluid movement, and therefore takes into account its transient nature not less than its momentary existence; because it lets nothing impose upon it, and is in its essence critical and revolutionary.[34]

Class struggle is the primary contradiction to be resolved by Marxist dialectics because of its central role in the social and political lives of a society. Nonetheless, Marx and Marxists developed the concept of class struggle to comprehend the dialectical contradictions between mental and manual labor and between town and country. Hence, philosophic contradiction is central to the development of dialectics: the progress from quantity to quality, the acceleration of gradual social change; the negation of the initial development of the status quo; the negation of that negation; and the high-level recurrence of features of the original status quo.

Friedrich Engels further proposed that nature itself is dialectical, and that this is "a very simple process, which is taking place everywhere and every day".[35] His dialectical "law of the transformation of quantity into quality and vice versa"[36] corresponds, according to Christian Fuchs, to the concept of phase transition and anticipated the concept of emergence "a hundred years ahead of his time".[37]

For Vladimir Lenin, the primary feature of Marx's "dialectical materialism" (Lenin's term) is its application of materialist philosophy to history and social sciences. Lenin's main contribution to the philosophy of dialectical materialism is his theory of reflection, which presents human consciousness as a dynamic reflection of the objective material world that fully shapes its contents and structure.

Later, Stalin's works on the subject established a rigid and formalistic division of Marxist–Leninist theory into dialectical materialism and historical materialism. While the first was supposed to be the key method and theory of the philosophy of nature, the second was the Soviet version of the philosophy of history.

Soviet systems theory pioneer Alexander Bogdanov viewed Hegelian and materialist dialectic as progressive, albeit inexact and diffuse, attempts at achieving what he called tektology, or a universal science of organization.[38]

Dialectical naturalism

Dialectical naturalism is a term coined by American philosopher Murray Bookchin to describe the philosophical underpinnings of the political program of social ecology. Dialectical naturalism explores the complex interrelationship between social problems, and the direct consequences they have on the ecological impact of human society. Bookchin offered dialectical naturalism as a contrast to what he saw as the "empyrean, basically antinaturalistic dialectical idealism" of Hegel, and "the wooden, often scientistic dialectical materialism of orthodox Marxists".[39]

Theological dialectics

Neo-orthodoxy, in Europe also known as theology of crisis and dialectical theology,[40][41] is an approach to theology in Protestantism that was developed in the aftermath of the First World War (1914–1918). It is characterized as a reaction against doctrines of 19th-century liberal theology and a more positive reevaluation of the teachings of the Reformation, much of which had been in decline (especially in western Europe) since the late 18th century.[42] It is primarily associated with two Swiss professors and pastors, Karl Barth[43] (1886–1968) and Emil Brunner (1899–1966),[40][41] even though Barth himself expressed his unease in the use of the term.[44]

In dialectical theology the difference and opposition between God and human beings is stressed in such a way that all human attempts at overcoming this opposition through moral, religious or philosophical idealism must be characterized as 'sin'. In the death of Christ humanity is negated and overcome, but this judgment also points forwards to the resurrection in which humanity is reestablished in Christ. For Barth this meant that only through God's 'no' to everything human can his 'yes' be perceived. Applied to traditional themes of Protestant theology, such as double predestination, this means that election and reprobation cannot be viewed as a quantitative limitation of God's action. Rather it must be seen as its "qualitative definition".[45] As Christ bore the rejection as well as the election of God for all humanity, every person is subject to both aspects of God's double predestination.

Dialectic prominently figured in Bernard Lonergan's philosophy, in his books Insight and Method in TheologyMichael Shute wrote about Lonergan's use of dialectic in The Origins of Lonergan's Notion of the Dialectic of History. For Lonergan, dialectic is both individual and operative in community. Simply described, it is a dynamic process that results in something new:

For the sake of greater precision, let us say that a dialectic is a concrete unfolding of linked but opposed principles of change. Thus there will be a dialectic if (1) there is an aggregate of events of a determinate character, (2) the events may be traced to either or both of two principles, (3) the principles are opposed yet bound together, and (4) they are modified by the changes that successively result from them.[46]

Dialectic is one of the eight functional specialties Lonergan envisaged for theology to bring this discipline into the modern world. Lonergan believed that the lack of an agreed method among scholars had inhibited substantive agreement from being reached and progress from being made compared to the natural sciences. Karl Rahner, S.J., however, criticized Lonergan's theological method in a short article entitled "Some Critical Thoughts on 'Functional Specialties in Theology'" where he stated: "Lonergan's theological methodology seems to me to be so generic that it really fits every science, and hence is not the methodology of theology as such, but only a very general methodology of science."[47]

Criticisms

Friedrich Nietzsche viewed dialectic as a method that imposes artificial boundaries and suppresses the richness and diversity of reality. He rejected the notion that truth can be fully grasped through dialectical reasoning and offered a critique of dialectic, challenging its traditional framework and emphasizing the limitations of its approach to understanding reality.[48] He expressed skepticism towards its methodology and implications in his work Twilight of the Idols: "I mistrust all systematizers and I avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity".[49]: 42  In the same book, Nietzsche criticized Socrates' dialectics because he believed it prioritized reason over instinct, resulting in the suppression of individual passions and the imposition of an artificial morality.[49]: 47 

Karl Popper attacked the dialectic repeatedly. In 1937, he wrote and delivered a paper entitled "What Is Dialectic?" in which he criticized the dialectics of Hegel, Marx, and Engels for their willingness "to put up with contradictions".[50] He argued that accepting contradiction as a valid form of logic would lead to the principle of explosion and thus trivialism. Popper concluded the essay with these words: "The whole development of dialectic should be a warning against the dangers inherent in philosophical system-building. It should remind us that philosophy should not be made a basis for any sort of scientific system and that philosophers should be much more modest in their claims. One task which they can fulfill quite usefully is the study of the critical methods of science".[50] Seventy years later, Nicholas Rescher responded that "Popper's critique touches only a hyperbolic version of dialectic", and he quipped: "Ironically, there is something decidedly dialectical about Popper's critique of dialectics."[51] Around the same time as Popper's critique was published, philosopher Sidney Hook discussed the "sense and nonsense in dialectic" and rejected two conceptions of dialectic as unscientific but accepted one conception as a "convenient organizing category".[52]

The philosopher of science and physicist Mario Bunge repeatedly criticized Hegelian and Marxian dialectics, calling them "fuzzy and remote from science"[53] and a "disastrous legacy".[54] He concluded: "The so-called laws of dialectics, such as formulated by Engels (1940, 1954) and Lenin (1947, 1981), are false insofar as they are intelligible."[54] Poe Yu-ze Wan, reviewing Bunge's criticisms of dialectics, found Bunge's arguments to be important and sensible, but he thought that dialectics could still serve some heuristic purposes for scientists.[37] Wan pointed out that scientists such as the American Marxist biologists Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin (authors of The Dialectical Biologist) and the German-American evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, not a Marxist himself, have found agreement between dialectical principles and their own scientific outlooks, although Wan opined that Engels's "laws" of dialectics "in fact 'explain' nothing".[37]

Even some Marxists are critical of the term "dialectics". For instance, Michael Heinrich wrote, "More often than not, the grandiose rhetoric about dialectics is reducible to the simple fact that everything is dependent upon everything else and is in a state of interaction and that it's all rather complicated—which is true in most cases, but doesn't really say anything."[55]

Formalization

Since the late 20th century, European and American logicians have attempted to provide mathematical foundations for dialectic through formalisation,[56]: 201–372  although logic has been related to dialectic since ancient times.[56]: 51–140  There have been pre-formal and partially-formal treatises on argument and dialectic, from authors such as Stephen Toulmin (The Uses of Argument, 1958),[57][58][56]: 203–256  Nicholas Rescher (Dialectics: A Controversy-Oriented Approach to the Theory of Knowledge, 1977),[59][60][56]: 330–336  and Frans H. van Eemeren and Rob Grootendorst (pragma-dialectics, 1980s).[56]: 517–614  One can include works of the communities of informal logic and paraconsistent logic.[56]: 373–424 

Defeasibility

Building on theories of defeasible reasoning (see John L. Pollock), systems have been built that define well-formedness of arguments, rules governing the process of introducing arguments based on fixed assumptions, and rules for shifting burden.[56]: 615–675  Many of these logics appear in the special area of artificial intelligence and law, though the computer scientists' interest in formalizing dialectic originates in a desire to build decision support and computer-supported collaborative work systems.[61]

Dialog games

Dialectic itself can be formalised as moves in a game, where an advocate for the truth of a proposition and an opponent argue.[56]: 301–372  Such games can provide a semantics of logic, one that is very general in applicability.[56]: 314 

Mathematics

Mathematician William Lawvere interpreted dialectics in the setting of categorical logic in terms of adjunctions between idempotent monads.[62] This perspective may be useful in the context of theoretical computer science where the duality between syntax and semantics can be interpreted as a dialectic in this sense. For example, the Curry-Howard equivalence is such an adjunction or more generally the duality between closed monoidal categories and their internal logic.[63]

See also

References

  1. ^ See Gorgias, 449B: "Socrates: Would you be willing then, Gorgias, to continue the discussion as we are now doing [Dialectic], by way of question and answer, and to put off to another occasion the (emotional) speeches (rhetoric) that (the sophist) Polus began?"
  2. ^ Ayer, A. J.; O'Grady, J. (1992). A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. p. 484.
  3. ^ McTaggart, J. M. E. (1964). A commentary on Hegel's logic. New York: Russell & Russell. p. 11.
  4. ^ Diogenes Laërtius, IX 25ff and VIII 57 [1].
  5. ^ "Elenchus - Wiktionary". 8 February 2021.
  6. ^ Wyss, Peter (October 2014). "Socratic Method: Aporeia, Elenchus and Dialectics (Plato: Four Dialogues, Handout 3)" (PDF)open.conted.ox.ac.ukUniversity of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education.
  7. ^ Reale, Giovanni (1990). History of Ancient Philosophy. Vol. 2. Translated by Catan, John R. Albany: State University of New York. p. 150.
  8. ^ Republic, VII, 533 c-d
  9. ^ Blackburn, Simon (1996). The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  10. ^ Abelson, P. (1965). The seven liberal arts; a study in mediæval culture. New York: Russell & Russell. Page 82.
  11. ^ Hyman, A., & Walsh, J. J. (1983). Philosophy in the Middle Ages: the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co. Page 164.
  12. ^ Adler, Mortimer Jerome (2000). "Dialectic". Routledge. Page 4. ISBN 0-415-22550-7
  13. ^ Herbermann, C. G. (1913). The Catholic encyclopedia: an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, and history of the Catholic church. New York: The Encyclopedia press, inc. Page 760–764.
  14. ^ From topic to tale: logic and narrativity in the Middle Ages, by Eugene Vance, p.43-45
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  17. ^ Dronke, Peter (9 July 1992). A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. p. 198. ISBN 9780521429078.
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  20. ^ Nicholson, J. A. (1950). Philosophy of religion. New York: Ronald Press Co. p. 108.
  21. ^ Kant, I.; Guyer, P.; Wood, A. W. (2003). Critique of pure reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 495. ISBN 9780758339010.
  22. ^ Maybee, Julie E. (Winter 2020). "Hegel's Dialectics § 3. Why does Hegel use dialectics?". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  23. ^ Henri Lefebvre's "humanist" dialectical materialism (Dialectical Materialism [1940]) was composed to directly challenge Joseph Stalin's own dogmatic text on dialectical materialism.
  24. ^ Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (2010). Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Basic Outline: Part 1, Science of Logic. Cambridge Hegel Translations. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 9780521829144OCLC 651153726the necessity of the connectedness and the immanent emergence of distinctions must be found in the treatment of the fact itself, for it falls within the concept's own progressive determination. What propels the concept onward is the already mentioned negative which it possesses in itself; it is this that constitutes the truly dialectical factor. [...] It is in this dialectic as understood here, and hence in grasping opposites in their unity, or the positive in the negative, that the speculative consists.
  25. ^ Historische Entwicklung der spekulativen Philosophie von Kant bis Hegel [Historical development of speculative philosophy from Kant to Hegel] (in German) (Fourth ed.). Dresden-Leipzig. 1848 [1837]. p. 367.
  26. ^ The Accessible Hegel by Michael Allen Fox. Prometheus Books. 2005. p. 43. Also see Hegel's preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A. V. Miller (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), secs. 50, 51, pp. 29, 30.
  27. ^ Adorno, Theodor (2008). Lectures on Negative Dialectics: Fragments of a Lecture Course 1965/1966Polity. p. 6. ISBN 978-0745635101.
  28. ^ Maybee, Julie E. (Winter 2020). "Hegel's Dialectics". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  29. ^ Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1812). Hegel's Science of Logic. London: Allen & Unwin. p. §185.
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  35. ^ Engels, Frederick, (1877) Anti-Dühring, Part I: Philosophy, XIII. Dialectics. Negation of the Negation.
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    a b c Wan, Poe Yu-ze (December 2013). "Dialectics, complexity, and the systemic approach: toward a critical reconciliation". Philosophy of the Social Sciences43 (4): 411–452 (412, 416, 419, 424, 428). CiteSeerX 10.1.1.989.6440doi:10.1177/0048393112441974S2CID 144820093.
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    a b "Original Britinnica online". Retrieved 2008-07-26.
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    a b "Britannica Encyclopedia (online)". Retrieved 2008-07-26.
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  44. ^ See Church Dogmatics III/3, xii.
  45. ^ Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans (1933), p. 346
  46. ^ Bernard J.F. Lonergan, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, Collected Works vol. 3, ed. Frederick E. Crowe and Robert M. Doran (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1992, pp.217-218).
  47. ^ McShane, S.J., Philip (1972). Foundations of Theology. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. p. 194.
  48. ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich (2001). The Gay Science. Cambridge University Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780521636452.
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    a b Nietzsche, Friedrich (1997). Twilight of the Idols or How to Philosophize with a Hammer. Hackett. ISBN 978-0872203549.
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  51. ^ Rescher, Nicholas (2007). Dialectics: A Classical Approach to Inquiry. Frankfurt; New Brunswick: Ontos Verlag. p. 116. doi:10.1515/9783110321289ISBN 9783938793763OCLC 185032382.
  52. ^ Hook, Sidney (1940). "Sense and nonsense in dialectic"Reason, Social Myths and Democracy. New York: The John Day Co. pp. 262–264OCLC 265987.
  53. ^ Bunge, Mario Augusto (1981). "A critique of dialectics"Scientific materialism. Episteme. Vol. 9. Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 41–63doi:10.1007/978-94-009-8517-9_4ISBN 978-9027713049OCLC 7596139.
  54. Jump up to:
    a b Bunge, Mario Augusto (2012). Evaluating philosophies. Boston studies in the philosophy of science. Vol. 295. New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 84–85. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4408-0ISBN 9789400744073OCLC 806947226.
  55. ^ Heinrich, Michael (2004). "Dialectics—A Marxist 'Rosetta Stone'?"An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital. Translated by Alexander Locascio. New York: Monthly Review Press. pp. 36–37ISBN 9781583672884OCLC 768793094.
  56. Jump up to:
    a b c d e f g h i Eemeren, Frans H. van; Garssen, Bart; Krabbe, Erik C. W.; Snoeck Henkemans, A. Francisca; Verheij, Bart; Wagemans, Jean H. M. (2014). Handbook of argumentation theory. New York: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9473-5ISBN 9789048194728OCLC 871004444.
  57. ^ Toulmin, Stephen (2003) [1958]. The uses of argument (Updated ed.). Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511840005ISBN 978-0521827485OCLC 51607421.
  58. ^ Hitchcock, David; Verheij, Bart, eds. (2006). Arguing on the Toulmin model: new essays in argument analysis and evaluation. Argumentation library. Vol. 10. Dordrecht: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-4938-5ISBN 978-1402049378OCLC 82229075.
  59. ^ Hetherington, Stephen (2006). "Nicholas Rescher: Philosophical Dialectics"Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2006.07.16).
  60. ^ Jacquette, Dale, ed. (2009). Reason, Method, and Value: A Reader on the Philosophy of Nicholas Rescher. Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag. doi:10.1515/9783110329056ISBN 9783110329056.
  61. ^ For surveys of work in this area see, for example: Chesñevar, Carlos Iván; Maguitman, Ana Gabriela; Loui, Ronald Prescott (December 2000). "Logical models of argument". ACM Computing Surveys32 (4): 337–383. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.702.8325doi:10.1145/371578.371581. And: Prakken, Henry; Vreeswijk, Gerard (2005). "Logics for defeasible argumentation". In Gabbay, Dov M.; Guenthner, Franz (eds.). Handbook of philosophical logic. Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 219–318. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.295.2649doi:10.1007/978-94-017-0456-4_3ISBN 9789048158775.
  62. ^ Lawvere, F. William (1996). "Unity and identity of opposites in calculus and physics". Applied Categorical Structures4 (2–3): 167–174. doi:10.1007/BF00122250S2CID 34109341.
  63. ^ Eilenberg, Samuel; Kelly, G. Max (1966). "Closed Categories". Proceedings of the Conference on Categorical Algebra. pp. 421–562. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-99902-4_22ISBN 978-3-642-99904-8S2CID 251105095.