Excursus 004

In the Novum Organum (1620), Bacon employs the terms “dialectic” and “dialectical” in a specifically syllogistic sense: a scholastic structure of reasoning that proceeds syllogistically from received axioms. The term therefore designates a formal apparatus of argumentation—major premise, minor premise, and conclusion—rather than dialogical exchange or the later speculative “dialectic” of Kant, Hegel, or Marx.

This example illustrates a general hermeneutical principle: identical philosophical terms may designate different concepts in different authors.