[MD] D i a l e c t i c

[MarshaV]

[Plato's] Socrates favoured _truth_ as the highest value, proposing that it could be discovered through reason and logic in discussion: ergo, dialectic.  [Plato's] Socrates valued rationality (appealing to logic, not emotion) as the proper means for persuasion, the discovery of truth, and the determinant for one's actions. To [Plato's] Socrates, _truth_, not _aretē_, was the greater good, and each person should, above all else, seek truth to guide one's life. 

Wiki "dialectics"