But the same form could be used, and was used, notably by Socrates, not in an Eristic spirit but as a means of awakening people to the consequences of certain admissions or first principles, and thus making vague knowledge explicit and clear.
"Logic, Inductive and Deductive"
William Minto
"On the Antidosis," 258-269, as to the true place of "Eristic" in education.
"The Memorabilia Recollections of Socrates"
Xenophon
What he wanted to do was to study the truth for its own sake, without having to think of and be hindered by the exposure of errors; and above all, to seize it in all its breadth and all its depths, to have done with this blighting and irritating Eristic, and to reflect in a vast Mirror the whole and purest light of the sacred dogmas.
"Saint Augustin"
Louis Bertrand