Hegelian dialectic

American  

noun

1. an interpretive method, originally used to relate specific entities or events to the absolute idea, in which some assertible proposition thesis is necessarily opposed by an equally assertible and apparently contradictory proposition antithesis, the mutual contradiction being reconciled on a higher level of truth by a third proposition synthesis.

---

Hegelian dialectic British  

/ hɪˈɡeɪlɪan, heɪˈɡiː- /

noun

1. philosophy an interpretive method in which the contradiction between a proposition (thesis) and its antithesis is resolved at a higher level of truth (synthesis)

---

Example Sentences

This three-part structure has deep roots in the humanities tracking back to the Hegelian dialectic of thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

From Scientific American

Keeping in mind the inevitable force of Hegelian dialectic, we now have extremists on both sides and not much hope for a synthesis.

From Washington Post

He mastered what is generally known as the Hegelian dialectic – rejecting two opposites in an attempt to seek a middle ground that reconciled both.

From The Guardian

Shouldn’t they study geology, chemistry and microbiology rather than Euclidian geometry and Hegelian dialectic?

From Washington Post

But he can get too abstracted – witness his ruminations on the Hegelian dialectic – and he has nothing to match Judt's mordant aperçus and aphorisms.

From The Guardian