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Oftentimes, we think of '''dialogue''' perhaps as a better conversation, but there is much more to it. Genuine dialogue is a conversation with a center, not sides. It is a way of taking the energy or our differences and channeling it toward something that has never been created before. It lifts us out of polarization and into a greater common sense, and is thereby a means for accessing the intelligence and coordinated power of groups of people.[http://trinitize.blogspot.com/2007/07/dialogue.html#links]
Oftentimes, we think of '''dialogue''' perhaps as a better conversation, but there is much more to it. Genuine dialogue is a conversation with a center, not sides. It is a way of taking the energy or our differences and channeling it toward something that has never been created before. It lifts us out of polarization and into a greater common sense, and is thereby a means for accessing the intelligence and coordinated power of groups of people.[http://trinitize.blogspot.com/2007/07/dialogue.html#links]
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A '''dialogue''' (sometimes spelled '''dialog''' (n., v.) The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993 is a reciprocal [[conversation]] between two or more [[Entity|entities]]. The [[Etymology|etymological]] origins of the word (in [[Greek language|Greek]] διά(diá,through) + λόγος(logos,word,speech) concepts like ''flowing-through meaning'')) do not necessarily convey the way in which people have come to use the word, with some confusion between the prefix διά-(diá-,through) and the prefix δι-(di-, two) leading to the assumption that a dialogue is necessarily between only two parties.[[http://www.bartleby.com/68/17/1817.html]]
A '''dialogue''' (sometimes spelled '''dialog''' (n., v.) The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993 is a reciprocal [[conversation]] between two or more [[Entity|entities]]. The [[Etymology|etymological]] origins of the word (in [[Greek language|Greek]] διά(diá,through) + λόγος(logos,word,speech) concepts like ''flowing-through meaning'')) do not necessarily convey the way in which people have come to use the word, with some confusion between the prefix διά-(diá-,through) and the prefix δι-(di-, two) leading to the assumption that a dialogue is necessarily between only two parties.[http://www.bartleby.com/68/17/1817.html]
==Literary and philosophical genre==
When reported or imitated in writing, "dialogue" labels a form of literature used by the [[Greek literature|Greeks]] and [[Indian literature|Indians]] for purposes of [[rhetoric]]al entertainment and instruction. This form has scarcely been modified since the days of its invention.
A [[literature|literary]] dialogue comprises a little [[drama]] without a theater, and with scarcely any change of scene. It can exhibit those qualities which [[La Fontaine]] applauded in the [[Platonic dialogue|dialogues]] of [[Plato]], namely vivacity, fidelity of tone, and accuracy in the opposition of opinions. It has long served writers who have something to censure or to impart, but who love to stand outside the [[pulpit]], and to encourage others to pursue a train of thought which the author does not seem to do more than indicate. The dialogue expresses and notes down the undulations of human [[thought]] so spontaneously that it almost escapes analysis. Commonly, records of the alleged actual words spoken by living or imaginary people and it appears in a dialogued format. One branch of this form of expressive documentation, the drama, depends upon dialogue almost exclusively. Yet, in its technical sense, the word 'dialogue' describes what the Greek [[philosophy|philosophers]] invented, and what the noblest of them lifted to the extreme refinement of an [[art]].
===Antiquity and the middle ages===
In the east, the genre dates back to the [[Rigvedic dialogue hymns]] and the [[Indian epic poetry|Indian epic]] ''[[Mahabharata]]'', while in the west, literary historians commonly suppose that Plato (c. [[427 BC]] - c. [[347 BC]]) introduced the systematic use of dialogue as an independent literary form: they point to his earliest experiment with the genre in the ''Laches''. The Platonic dialogue, however, had its foundations in the ''mime'', which the [[Sicily|Sicilian]] poets [[Sophron]] and [[Epicharmus]] had cultivated half a century earlier. The works of these writers, which Plato admired and imitated, have not survived, but scholars imagine them as little plays usually presented with only two performers. The ''[[Mime (drama)|Mimes]]'' of [[Herodas]] give us some idea of their scope.
Plato further simplified the form and reduced it to pure [[Logical argument|argumentative]] conversation, while leaving intact the amusing element of [[fictional character|character]]-drawing. He must have begun this about the year [[405 BC]], and by [[399 BC|399]] he had brought the dialogue to its highest perfection, especially in the cycle directly inspired by the death of [[Socrates]]. All his philosophical writings, except the ''[[Apology]]'', use this form. As the greatest of all masters of Greek prose style, Plato lifted his favorite instrument, the dialogue, to its highest splendor, and to this day he remains by far its most distinguished proficient.
Following Plato, the dialogue became one major literary genre in antiquity, and there are several examples both in Latin and Greek. Soon after Plato, [[Xenophon]] wrote his own ''[[Symposium (Xenophon dialogue)|Symposium]]'', Aristotle is said to have written several philosophical dialogues in Plato's style (none of which have survived), and later most of the Hellenistic schools had their own dialogue. [[Cicero]] wrote some very important works in this genre, such as ''Orator'', ''Res Publica'', and the lost ''Hortensius'' (the latter cited by [[Saint Augustine|Augustine]] in the ''[[Confessions (St. Augustine)|Confessions]]'' as the work which instilled in him his lifelong love of philosophy).
In the [[2nd century|2nd century AD]]. [[Lucian of Samosata]] achieved a brilliant success with his ironic dialogues ''Of the Gods'', ''Of the Dead'', ''Of Love'' and ''Of the Courtesans''. In some of them he attacks [[superstition]] and philosophical error with the sharpness of his wit; in others he merely paints scenes of modern life.
The dialogue was frequently used by early Christian writers, such as [[Justin]], [[Origen]] and Augustine, and a particularly notable dialogue from late antiquity is [[Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius|Boethius]]'s ''[[Consolation of Philosophy]]''. The genre survived up through the early scholastic period, with [[Peter Abelard]] composing his ''Dialogue with a Jew, a Christian and a Philosopher'' in the early [[12th century|12th century AD]], but later, in the wake of the powerful influence of writings by [[St. Bonaventure|Bonaventure]] and [[Thomas Aquinas]], the scholastic tradition adopted the more formal and concise genre of the summa, which largely superseded the dialogue as philosophical format.
===The modern period to the present===
Two French writers of eminence borrowed the title of Lucian’s most famous collection; both [[Fontenelle]] ([[1683]]) and [[François Fénelon|Fénelon]] ([[1712]]) prepared ''Dialogues des morts'' ("Dialogues of the Dead"). Contemporaneously, in 1688, the French philosopher [[Nicolas Malebranche]] published his ''Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion'', thus contributing to the genre's revival in philosophic circles. In English non-dramatic literature the dialogue did not see extensive use until [[George Berkeley|Berkeley]] employed it, in [[1713]], for his Platonic treatise, ''[[Three Dialogs between Hylas and Philonous]]''. [[Walter Savage Landor|Landor]]’s ''Imaginary Conversations'' ([[1821]]-[[1828]]) formed the most famous English example of dialogue in the [[19th century]], although the dialogues of [[Arthur Helps|Sir Arthur Helps]] also claim attention.
In Germany, [[Christoph Martin Wieland|Wieland]] adopted this form for several important satirical works published between [[1780]] and [[1799]]. In Spanish literature, the ''Dialogues'' of [[Juan de Valdés|Valdés]] ([[1528]]) and those on ''Painting'' ([[1633]]) by [[Vincenzo Carducci]] are celebrated. Italian writers of collections of dialogues, following Plato's model, include [[Torquato Tasso]] ([[1586]]), [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]] ([[1632]]), [[Ferdinando Galiani|Galiani]] ([[1770]]), [[Giacomo Leopardi|Leopardi]] ([[1825]]), and a host of others.
More recently, the French returned to the original application of dialogue. The inventions of "[[Gyp]]", of [[Henri Léon Emile Lavedan|Henri Lavedan]], and of others, tell a mundane [[anecdote]] wittily and maliciously in conversation, would probably present a close analogy to the lost mimes of the early Sicilian poets. This kind of dialogue also appeared in English, exemplified by [[F. Anstey|Anstey Guthrie]], but these dialogues seem to have found less of a popular following among the English than their counterparts written by French authors.
The [[Platonic dialogue]], as a distinct genre which features Socrates as a speaker and one or more interlocutors discussing some philosophical question, experienced something of a rebirth in the [[20th century]]. Authors who have recently employed it include [[George Santayana]], in his eminent ''Dialogues in Limbo'' (1926, 2nd ed. 1948; this work also includes such historical figures as [[Alcibiades]], [[Aristippus]], [[Avicenna]], [[Democritus]], and [[Dionysius the Younger]] as speakers), and [[Iris Murdoch]], who included not only Socrates and Alcibiades as interlocutors in her work ''Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues'' (1986), but featured a young Plato himself as well.
The philosophic dialogue, with or without Socrates as a character, continues to be used on occasion by philosophers when attempting to write engaging, literary works of philosophy which attempt to capture the subtle nuance and lively give-and-take of discourse as it actually takes place in intellectual conversation.
==Platonic dialogues==
==Platonic dialogues==
