Good point - and to further your definition of dialectical - it is not simple opposition of two forces that leads to a 3rd path (I think that is often referred to as Aristotelian dialectic).<p>The critical theory dialectic you refer to is the ability to observe something in terms of its totality. The moment (for Hegel) that the totality is clear and apparent it begins to 'sublate' which in this context means simultaneously  to negate and transcend.<p>In the preface to Hegels "Phenomenology Of Spirit" one example is the acorn.<p>It goes through a series of discrete steps of growth. It is hard to say the moment that it ceases to become an acorn and becomes something else. It goes through a process of negation (no longer an acorn) and transcends this to become an oak shoot and then a tree.<p>There is a moment i am sure - when the shell cracks and a series of small quantitative changes result in a qualitative change.<p>There was a time in which the highly educated  'saw' the totality. Samuel Johnson was reputed to have read all the available knowledge of his time. (I dont know how one could know this - but for the sake of argument I will take Ben Jonson's word). But it has been 200 years since anyone would even make that claim.<p>But Zinn was able to hold up a recognizable fragment in which we could get a glimpse of a total image for a brief moment.