The New International Encyclopædia/Dialogue

​DIALOGUE (Lat. dialogus, Gk. διάλογος, dialogos, speech, from διά, dia, through + λόγος, logos, speech, from λέγειν, legein, to speak). A conversation between two or more persons, implying, however, greater unity of subject and formality than an ordinary conversation. The Socratic dialogue is a conversation in the form of question and answer, so contrived that the person questioned is led himself to originate those ideas that the questioner wishes to bring before him. The dialogues of Plato are, as it were, philosophical dramas, in which the Socratic method of investigation is brought to bear upon speculative subjects. And in general among the ancients the dialogue was a favorite form for didactic literature. Aristotle employed it, but in less dramatic form than Plato; and Cicero chose the Aristotelian dialogue for his philosophical works. Lucian employs it for purposes approaching those of the drama. Of the more eminent modern writers in this form, we may mention Erasmus in Latin; Hutten, Lessing, Herder, Wieland, and Schelling among the Germans; Petrarch and Macchiavelli in Italy; Fénelon, Fontanelle, and Voltaire in France; and Berkeley, Hurd, and Harris in England. Landor’s Imaginary Conversations also are a happy effort of this kind. When dialogue is combined with action, we have the drama. On the ancient dialogue, consult Hirzel, Der Dialog (Leipzig, 1895).