Dialectic, Dialogue, Slavery

The literal meaning of 'contradict' is 'speak against', a reminder that Dialectic, of which Contradiction is a decisive moment, originates as the species of verbal communication associated with Socrates, i. e. as Dialogue.  Likewise, Synthesis, as the resolution of a Contradiction, expresses the fundamental function of Communication as an integrative factor among the members of the species.  Now, Kant's representation of Dialectic, entailing conflicting propositions, reflects that root, from which Hegel's definition of Contradiction as mere 'opposition', the terms of which are any mental elements, is, therefore, a double abstraction.  Thus, Marx's Materialist counterpart, in which Contradiction is any social antagonism, retains one of those abstractions.  In other words, he misses that Materialist Dialectic is fundamentally Dialogue.  Now, if Slavery were, as Hegel depicts it, constituted by such properly Dialectical processes, a Thesis uttered by the Master would be met by an Antithesis uttered by the Slave.  So, since the latter would likely result in physical punishment, in that context, Dialectic falls apart.  Thus, the proper Dialectical Materialist response to Hegel's passage is that it distorts the Dialectical relation that obtains between Master and Slave.