Dialectic is often used in the Hegelian sense to drive people to a pre-determined synthesis. I heard this on a podcast the other day and thought it was a really good explanation of a valuable form of dialectic. From Tao Te Ching:
When the world knows beauty as beauty, ugliness arises
When it knows good as good, evil arises
Thus being and non-being produce each other
Difficult and easy bring about each other
Long and short reveal each other
High and low support each other
Music and voice harmonize each other
Front and back follow each other
I should be finished up with my initial survey of stoicism in a few weeks. I may order a few books on Taoism to balance that out.
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