DIALECTICA, 
which, for this reafon, was called dialeflica, Brucker (Hift. 
n 
cribe 
ue ee aaa 
no; though there bt t 
and other iietaphyfical Finer of the Eleatic fea, 
ployed much ingenuity and fubtlety in exhibiting ccm 
of moft of the lo 
ogical arts, which were afterwards reduced 
to rule by Ariftotle and other 
The dialectica of the ancicnts is ufually divided into feve- 
yal kinds : the firft was the Eleatica, thatof Zeno Eleates, 
which was threefold : - confecutionum, colloquaticnum, 
and contentionum. i 
cing, or drawing ere rere 
logue ; whic came of fue 
the fec 
univ te i in * philofophy, 
that called interrogation; then fyllogifm 
being laid. afide, ane aiilelegt eas did all by a dialogue ; it 
lying on the refpo oo ed conclude and argue from the feve- 
ral conceflions made. e laft part of rae s dialectics, 
Eeisixn, Was Sen tioue ; orthe art of difputing, and con- 
tradicting : though fome, asa pael Co afcribe this 
part to Protagoras, a di we e of Zen 
i ca Vo vas seule is 
pel eres but another, of Meg 
d of Zeno, aa Pr cee ; 
hough s appropriated to him: the firf, 
that he impugned the aus an of others, not by al 
fumptions, but conclufions ; continually making ao 
and proceeding from confequence to confequence ; e- 
cond, that he fet cae all arguments drawn from fe sailbas 
of fimilitude, as inv 
e was fucceede a 'by Eubulides, from whom the fophi- 
flic w way of reafoning is faid to be derived. In his time 
the art is delcribed as vnanifold : mentiens, fallens, electra, 
obvelata, arcevalis, cornuta, and calva. See SopnHism. 
The third is the dialeQics of Plato, which he pioncies 
as a kind of analyfis, to dire& - aye rae by dividing, 
defining, and sg ae things t uth; where 
being arrived, and flopping there a : litle, it ie itfelf to 
explain fenfible inane but with a view to return to the fir 
alone it can reft. 
m of his doétrine on diale&tics, as collected from 
his silegces, is this ; Trath 1 is difcerned, not by the 8 
act inte em- 
a 
things which are fubje& to 
pétually liable to eu and change. The contempla- 
= of the former creates {cience ; attention to the gees 
Senfe is the paffive perception of t 
When the forms 
of Gio are, by means of the a organs, fo deep- 
ly jmpreffed upon the ah d, as rot to ay ‘faced by 
time, this pet aad Pt effion is called Memory. From 
a prefent 
when thefe agree, the opinion is true ; 
isfalfe. The feat of te gor si memory is like a waxen 
tablet, or picture, which t ind contemplates, 
thence frames opinions. In meat en the foul converle 
with itfelf : ose flows through the lips by means of 
‘the vocal organs. Intelleétion is the operation of ce un- 
derftanding, pourenplanne intell ligible forms, or ideas. It 
is twofold; the firfl, that o f the foul contemplating ideas 
before it defccads into the body: the other, that which it 
exercifes after itis immerfed in the body, which may be 
alfo termed natural knowle This kind of knowledge 
confifts in the recoile€tion of thofe things which the mind 
ha id known i in its pre- rexiftent ftate, and diflsrs from memos 
rft pen of — 8 edu-- 
of dia- 
- Plato, who meets the fight ; 
ane 
ry in the obje€is memory being emp'oyed upon Jenfible 
thin ge saucnes upon things purely ‘intelligible. The 
ep ind toa of contemplation are either primary or 
fecondary: the primary are ideas; the fecondary are the 
rae infeparable on material objects. 2 mind, in ex 
ercifing its judgment, confiders theoretically what is ali 
or falfe, and practically what may, or may not 
Diale&ics con eel the effence and the accidents of thi ene : 
concerning t obferved, it makes 
s, the whole into its parts, and the 
s the genus, or the thing to be 
de fined, and diftinguifhes it from all others by adding its 
{pecific difference, Analyfis rifes from objects of fenfe to 
intelligibles ; from demonftrable propofitions to axioms, or 
from hypothefis to experience. Indution rifes from indi- 
vidua's to univerfals. Syllogif{m produces a conclufion by 
m ome intermediate propofition hefe pee are 
curforily touched upo y aa ; and it is rather by ex 
n 
than by precepts e teaches the true art aa reas 
one or expofes the fallacies a fophiftry. 
urth is “Arittotle s dialectics, containing the doe 
trine nee words, delivered in his book of ‘ Predica- 
ments :”? the do&rine . earn in his book ** De In- 
al eh oars ”? and that of the feveral kinds of Ayiogiio, 
eg 00 ee 6 «Analytic “ Topics,” and ‘ Eienchu- 
d Lo 
aa 
TL 
The fifth is “e “dialeAlics of the Stoics, which they call 
a part of philofophy, and divide into rhetoric, and dialectic 5 
to which fome add the definitive, whereby things are jutly 
defined, a likewife, the canons, or criterions, 
of trut ee IC. 
The Sto oics, before they come to treat of fyllogifms, have 
the about the figniicati on - 
oe about the thing fignified. Ono 
of the fet, they confider abundance of things ee - 
the grammarian’s province: what, and how many letters ; 
what is a word, diétion, fpeech, &c. On occafion of the 
latter, sees confider things Henan a as without the 
mind, as in it, receive t by m of the fenfes. 
Accordingly they firft peaeNs that ral : ‘ntelleéta, quod 
n prius fuerit in fenfu ;’? whatever is in the mind, came 
ake: by the fenfes ; aud ea “ aut siecueGo: {ni,”? as 
“aut fimilitudine,” as Cefar 
by his effigy ; “aut proportione,” either by enlarging, as a 
giaut, or by diminifhing, as a pig 
as a Cyclops ; * aut Gormpeliuone; 
eae as death ; ‘* aut privatione,”’ asa 
Con ae the whole bufefs of dialectics, as it appea 
to tee been conducted e Stoics, we may exclaim with 
Seneca: ‘*O pueriles ineptias ! in hoc, fupercilia fubduxi- 
mus? in hoc, le demiffimus ? hoe eft, quod triftes doce« 
mus, et ae 
The fixth is Tpieuras? s dialectics. For though he feems 
to = axipifed iyo he cultivated it with vigour: he 
was only averfe to : the Stoics, who he thought ate 
tte too muc aes 3 as oa ng him alone wife who 
well verfed in * dialeetie F his Sagi af degen 
to fet afide the common dialeic as onl 
dudtive of thorny foam idle aa and fruitlefs cas 
villing, had recourfe t other viz. to certain cas 
nons, which he fabftituted i in cetier ead, he collection where- 
of he called canonica ; and as all queftions in philofophy are 
a de > or de voce, he gave feparate rules for each. 
PICUREANS. 
The dialeétic philofophy, loaded Bie metaphyfical fabtle- 
ties, which had been itudied and profeffed by feveral of the 
clergy towards the clofe of the sth century, began, at the 
fr) 
ning 
