http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/dialectic
Hegelian Dialectic:
Although Hegel never used such a classification himself, Hegel's dialectic is
often described as consisting of three stages: a
thesis, an
antithesis which
contradicts or negates the thesis, and a
synthesis embodying
what is essential to each.
In the Logic... Hegel describes a dialectic
of existence:
first, existence must be posited as pure Being (thesis); but pure Being,
upon examination, is found to be indistinguishable from Nothing
(antithesis); yet both Being and Nothing are united as Becoming
(synthesis...
Like Socratic dialectic, Hegel's dialectic
proceeds by making implicit contradictions explicit: each stage of the
process is the product of contradictions inherent or implicit in the
preceding stage.
Marxist Dialectic:
Karl Marx and
Friedrich
Engels believed Hegel was "standing on his head", and claimed to put him
back on his feet, ridding Hegel's
logic of its
idealist orientation,
and conceiving what is now known as
materialist or
Marxist dialectics....
Dialectical method came to be seen as the vital foundation for any
Marxist politics, through the work of
Karl Korsch,
Georg Lukács and
certain members of the
Frankfurt
School. ...
Dialectical Biology:
...a dialectical approach to
biology. ...They
focus on the (dialectical) relationship between the "whole" (or totality)
and the "parts." .... That is, a biological system of some kind consists of
a collection of heterogeneous parts. All of these contribute to the
character of the whole, as in
reductionist thinking.
On the other hand, the whole has an existence independent of the parts
and feeds back to affect and determine the nature of the parts. This
back-and-forth (dialectic) of causation implies a dynamic process.
For example, Darwinian evolution points to
the competition of a variety of species, each with heterogeneous members,
within a given environment. This leads to changing species and even to new
species arising. A dialectical biologist would not reject this picture as
much as look for ways in which the competing creatures lead to changes in
the environment, as when the action of microbes encourages the erosion of
rocks. Further, each species is part of the "environment" of all of the
others.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 -
1831) ... born in
Stuttgart,
Württemberg....
He received his education at the
Tübinger Stift
(seminary of the Protestant Church in Württemberg).... He became fascinated
by the works of Spinoza,
Kant, and
Rousseau,
and by the French Revolution. Many consider Hegel's thought to represent the summit
of 19th Century Germany's movement of philosophical
idealism. It would
come to have a profound impact on many future philosophers such as
Arthur
Schopenhauer ...
Friedrich
Nietzsche... the
historical materialism of
Karl Marx. ...
Hegel's first and most important major work is
the Phenomenology of Spirit (or Phenomenology of Mind). ...
Hegel introduced a system for understanding
the history of
philosophy and
the world itself, often called a "dialectic":
a progression in which each successive movement emerges as a solution to
the contradictions inherent in the preceding movement. ...
...many modern critics point out that Hegel
often seems to gloss over the realities of history in order to fit it into
his dialectical mold....
After Hegel's death, his followers divided
into two major and opposing camps. The Right Hegelians... advocated
evangelical orthodoxy and the political conservatism of the post-Napoleon Restoration
period. The Left became known as the
Young
Hegelians and they interpreted Hegel in a revolutionary sense, leading
to an advocation of atheism in religion and
liberal
democracy in politics. Left Hegelians included
Bruno Bauer,
Ludwig Feuerbach, David Friedrich Strauss,
Max Stirner,
and most famously, Karl Marx. The multiple schisms in this faction eventually led to ...
Marx's version of communism.
In the 20th century, Hegel's philosophy
underwent a major renaissance.... Some figures associated with this
renaissance are
Herbert
Marcuse, Theodor Adorno,
Ernst Bloch,
Alexandre Kojeve and
Gotthard
Günther. ...