From Puzzles to Principles? by May Sim, Allan Bck, Robert Bo... - 9780739100295

From Puzzles to Principles?Essays on Aristotle's Dialectic\nAuthor(s): May Sim, Allan Bck, Robert Bolton, J D. G. Evans, Michael Ferejohn, Eugene Garver, Lenn E. Goodman, Edward Halper, Martha Husain, Gareth Matthews\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, United States\nImprint: Lexington Books\nISBN-13: 9780739100295, 978-0739100295\nSynopsis\nScholars of classical philosophy have long disputed whether Aristotle was a dialectical thinker. Most agree that Aristotle contrasts dialectical reasoning with demonstrative reasoning, where the former reasons from generally accepted opinions and the latter reasons from the true and primary. Starting with a grasp on truth, demonstration never relinquishes it. Starting with opinion, how could dialectical reasoning ever reach truth, much less the truth about first principles? Is dialectic then an exercise that reiterates the prejudices of one's times and at best allows one to persuade others by appealing to these prejudices, o.