Editing Dialectic (section)

=== Platonism ===
In Platonism, dialectic assumed an ontological and metaphysical role in that it became the process whereby the intellect passes from sensibles to intelligibles, rising from idea to idea until it finally grasps the supreme idea, the first principle which is the origin of all. The philosopher is consequently a "dialectician".<ref>{{cite book |last=Reale |first=Giovanni |date=1990 |title=History of Ancient Philosophy |translator-first=John R. |translator-last=Catan |location=Albany |publisher=[[State University of New York]] |volume=2 |page=150}}</ref> In this sense, dialectic is a process of inquiry that does away with hypotheses up to the first principle.<ref>''Republic'', VII, 533 c-d</ref> It slowly embraces multiplicity in unity. The philosopher [[Simon Blackburn]] wrote that the dialectic in this sense is used to understand "the total process of enlightenment, whereby the philosopher is educated so as to achieve knowledge of the supreme good, the Form of the Good".<ref>{{cite dictionary |last=Blackburn |first=Simon |date=1996 |title=dialectic |dictionary=The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=104 |isbn=0-19-283134-8 |oclc=32854872 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000blac_c6v6/page/104 |url-access=registration}}</ref>