Dialectic Inquiry: Reality Interacting with Itself
In the recorded history of Western civilization, dialectic inquiry begins in Socratic Inquiry.
Socratic inquiry is about asking questions to understand ourselves better. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was interested in asking probing questions to get to deeper truths. He’d engage people in back-and-forth discussions to reveal flaws in their thinking. He aimed to challenge assumptions, examine ideas we usually take for granted, and determine what’s logically valid.
Socrates said, “Know thyself” because he believed philosophy should improve lives through self-knowledge. We can’t just accept what society tells us without thinking. Questioning our beliefs and values through dialogue helps us grow as individuals (something that seems in short supply these days). Socratic inquiry pushes us to reflect critically on how we think and act. Being so brutally honest with ourselves is not easy, but it’s necessary. Otherwise, we’re just sleepwalking through life on autopilot. Examining our life rigorously expands and deepens its meaning.
Socratic inquiry is an enlightening, but sometimes uncomfortable, process. By constantly probing beneath the surface, we gain insight and wisdom. This self-understanding allows us to live a more purposeful and meaningful life. It also deepens our personalness. We shed ego and become clearer about moral issues. It takes courage to confront our entrenched beliefs, habits, and convictions, but it’s how we grow. In a nutshell, Socratic questioning is a hard but rewarding path to self-discovery.
Dialectic inquiry involves a “feedback loop.” Dialectic inquiry requires at least two points of reality, consciousness, interacting – the two “fields of consciousness” and the combined field. Looking at this in terms of me and you:
- As “we” inquire into a topic, “I” have my experience and thought process, and you have “yours.”
- Each of us is “open” to the exploration. We have no agenda on where the inquiry goes. Neither of us is “pushing” our viewpoint or understanding on the other. We are exploring in an open-ended way.
- Your input evokes responses within my field of consciousness and vice-versa. It’s an open and open-ended feedback loop of intriguing exploration.
- Each of us is paying attention to our field of experience, our perception of the other’s field, and the combined field.
- We are allowing our sensitivity to the fields of experience to lead the inquiry.
We call this “dialectic inquiry”—there is a dialectic, an interaction of two forces merging together and becoming one vortex, one force. Two souls connect, becoming one. Inquiring into this combined consciousness develops the relationship, and the relationship can become a means of developing the individuals who are in it. – The Power of Divine Eros: The Illuminating Force of Love in Everyday Life
So far, in our exploration of the dynamic of realization, we’ve seen our practice and the arising of true nature as a looping dialectic, as two sides of one process, one dynamic. – Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery
“…in perfecting feedback and the means of rapid data manipulation, the science of cybernetics was gaining a deeper understanding of life itself as being, at its core, the processing of information.” Theodore Roszak, The Cult of Information
“We shape our tools, and thereafter, they shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan
Image by Peter Sharpe
In every feedback loop, as the name suggests, Information about the result of a transformation or an action is sent back to the system’s input in the form of input data. If these new data facilitate and accelerate the transformation in the same direction as the preceding results, they are positive feedback – their effects are cumulative. If the new data produce a result in the opposite direction to previous results, they are negative feedback – their effects stabilize the system. In the first case, there is exponential growth or decline; in the second, there is maintenance of the equilibrium.
Dialectic Inquiry is a powerful means of deepening one’s evolution of consciousness, personal process, and relationships. In dialectic inquiry, the poles of inquiry, which could be two or more units of consciousness, involve themselves in a feedback loop that establishes a field effect of consciousness. This field optimizes the process of each unit and the field itself toward greater awareness and freedom.
In this practical, self-paced audio course, you’ll learn how to explore the ocean of your inner world using a powerful practice called Diamond Inquiry.