Between Dialogue and Argument: An Attempt at Dialogic Phenomenology

Dobrosław KOT

Abstract

The relation between argument and dialogue is that of clear opposition. According to the philosophy of dialogue, dialogue manifests a dialogic relation, while argument denotes contest. While dialogue is an expression of an You–Thou relation, argument belongs to the I–It world of relations. Still, a phenomenological analysis of argument discloses its dialogic marks. However distant may argument be from dialogue, it is nevertheless involved in a dialogic situation, since it is rooted in the subjectivities of its participants. The tradition of the philosophy of encounter advanced by Martin Buber and Emmanuel Lévinas is not the only current of philosophy in which a thinking about dialogue has developed. An interesting insight into the essence of dialogue can be found in the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin: his conception of the polyphony of inner voices enables a better understanding of what argument is in its essence, and it facilitates grasping its dialogue-like moments as well as its dialogic implications. Ultimately, argument, which consists in breaking the unity of a subject involved in it into independent inner voices, may result in a dialogic restoration of the unity of I and Thou, and contribute to unveiling truth.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska