Chapter 1 · פרק א

Dialectic investigation is the engagement with, and investigation of, some statement or some opinion, in order to clarify and reveal whether it is true or not;

however, this clarification is carried out by setting out the arguments that may be advanced, to uphold and verify it or to annul and contradict it,

in such a way that the force of the arguments that verify it and the force of those that contradict it are examined, and it is decided in accordance with those that are more fitting to the intellect.

Now this engagement may take place among several people, one of them standing on one side and another on the side opposite him —

that is, one stands on the side of upholding the statement and one stands on the side of contradicting and annulling it — and they set their arguments against one another;

and it may be the engagement of a single man by himself, who supplies all the sides —

that is, he first lays down the statement, and he himself sets arguments against his statement, such as might be set against it by one who holds an opinion opposite to that statement,

and he himself then goes back and rebuts the arguments he brought and upholds his original statement.

Debates and analytical arguments of both these ways are found in the Talmud:

for there are cases where several engaged in give-and-take on one of the matters, this one raising a difficulty and that one answering;

and there are cases where the redactor of the Talmud himself raised the difficulty and answered, as if there were several speaking on that matter;

and there are cases where the Talmud says explicitly, "he raises the objection to it and he resolves it" (הוא מותיב לה והוא מפרק לה), namely, that the questioner himself gave the answer to his difficulty.

Yet all the ways come to one place, which is the clarification of the truth of things by setting the arguments one against the other;

and the rule governing a difficulty that one person raises against another's statement, or a difficulty that the author of a statement raises against his own statement, is one and the same;

likewise the rule governing an answer that comes in response to one of the difficulties, whether it be the words of the questioner himself or the words of another, is one and the same;

likewise all the other parts of analytical argument, for in all this we look not to those who argue but to the arguments.