Diaeresis (Greek: διαίρεσις diairesis, "division") is used as a technical term in Platonic and Stoic philosophy.
Diaeresis is a method of definition based on partitition which occurs in the Platonic dialogues Phaedrus, Sophist, Statesman and Philebus. It is a means of reaching a definition by which a large group is continually divided into relatively equal parts until the definition has been found.
A complementary term is merismos (cf. English merism: parsing or the distinguishing of parts, as opposed to diairesis, which is the division of a genus into its parts).
For example, in the Sophist (§235B), the Eleatic Stranger is examining illusions, which consist of words and "visual objects." By using diaeresis, he divides visual objects, by which it becomes clear he means works of art, into two categories: eikastikē technē, the art of making likenesses or eikones; and phantastikē technē, the art of creating illusionary appearances. The Stranger is much more fond of the former; the latter are only created to produce an appearance of beauty.
The method of diaeresis was taken up and developed by Plato's nephew and successor Speusippus.[1]
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