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argued that contradictory ideas such as a thesis (e.g., we are independent) and
an antithesis (e.g., we are dependent) could be synthesized. On the contrary,
Bakhtin, and later, Baxter argued that tensions between contradictory impulses
are continuous, having no ultimate resolution or end point. In common parlance,
the term “contradiction” has a negative connotation. From a dialectical
perspective; however, such a negative connotation does not exist. As Baxter and
Montgomery (1996) explain: “Contradictions are inherent in social life and not
evidence of failure or inadequacy in a person or in a social system. In fact,
contradictions are the basic ‘drivers’ of social change” (p. 7).
Conforth (1968) identified two root ideas underlying the concept of
dialectics: contradiction and process. The obvious aspect of contradiction is that
there is conflict, opposition, contrast, or discrepancy between two things, such as
the desire for openness and the desire for closedness. According to Bakhtin,
communication prompted by dialectical tensions allows partners to grow
individually and together (Baxter, 1994). Consequently, each relational impulse
needs a contradictory one. The idea of process emphasizes Bakhtin’s
understanding that change is the only paradoxical constant in human
relationships (Baxter, 1994). Dialectics are not static balances between
contradictory impulses, but fluid relationships that continuously evolve. Currently,
Baxter and her colleagues have identified three dialectics: connectedness-
separateness, certainty-uncertainty, and openness-closedness.
One of the tenets of dialectics is “praxis.” According to this tenet, humans
are
simultaneously actors and objects of our own actions. As Baxter and Montgomery
(1996) observed:
People function as proactive actors who make communicative choices in
how to function in their social world. Simultaneously, however, they
become reactive objects, because their actions become reified in a
variety of normative and institutionalized practices that establish the
boundaries of subsequent communicative moves. People are actors in
giving communicative life to the contradictions that organize their social
life, but these contradictions in turn affect their subsequent communicative
actions. Every interaction event is a unique moment at the same time that
Convention