Are Dialogues, Dialectics True Sources Of Wisdom?

The term ' dialogue ', as used in the ordinary sense, means conversation, discussion, and exchange or interchange of ideas. 'Dialectic' refers to a formal method of discovering what is true by considering opposite theories. It is used to designate 'the method of investigating nature of truth by critical analysis of opposing concepts and hypotheses.'


Plato described a dialectician as the midwife who helps us in arriving at knowledge through 'a skilfully directed technique of questioning.' Plato nowhere gives an explanation as to why he chose the method of dialogue, rather than writing reasoned treatises for exposition of his thesis. The closest one comes to understanding the reason for it is in his dialogue Phaedrus .


He explains it with the help of an Egyptian tale. Egyptian inventor Theuth presented his most notable invention of technique of writing as a tool for learning to reigning king Thamus, saying, "Here O king, is my technique of memory and wisdom, a branch of learning that will make people of Egypt wiser and help them improve their memories."


King Thamus contradicts him by saying that learning technique of writing would have opposite effect. The king reprimanded Theuth, "What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder." About writing as a source of knowledge, the king argued, "If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks."


Writing, the king argued, does not result in wisdom but only in its semblance. By telling them of many things without teaching them, you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part, they know nothing.


Supporting King Thamus' criticism of writing, Plato says that writing provides us with 'dead discourse'. According to him, written words "seem to talk to you as though they were intelligent, but if you ask them anything about what they say, from a desire to be instructed, they go on telling you just the same thing forever."


The second reason for denouncing writing is that there is always a danger of the written word falling in the hands of undeserving persons. "Once a thing is put in writing," according to him, "drifts all over the place, getting into the hands not only of those who understand it, but equally of those who have no business with it; it does not know how to address the right people, and not address the wrong. And when it is ill-treated and unfairly abused, it always needs its parent to come to its help, being unable to defend or help itself."


On the other hand, the ' living speech ' is treated by Plato as the "brother to the written speech...goes together with knowledge and is written in the soul of learner, (it) can defend itself, and knows to whom it should speak and to whom it should say nothing."


But not every dialogue can be a source of wisdom. Only those dialogues - inquiries which are conducted or directed by the one who knows, who is thoroughly skilled in techniques of questioning, who has mastered the art of dialectic, according to Plato - the father of this method, yield fruitful results.


Authored by: Ashok Vohra