According to Proclus, dialectics can be considered the properly human science, one which departs from an essentially temporal way. The human soul’s understanding is based on a partial and temporal way. Her understanding is limited to partial and temporal aspects. Temporality is thus the main feature of the soul as far as the intellect is concerned, and her understanding is logos, i.e., transitivity, the succession of thoughts which pass one to the other. Dialectics is logos that makes possible the overcoming of the unilaterality of a single temporal perspective. Time is a logical order, intellective, prior to the soul as it is prior to the universe.

Según Proclo, la dialéctica es la ciencia propiamente humana, que se despliega de un modo esencialmente temporal. El alma humana entiende de un modo parcial y temporal. Su conocimiento está limitado a aspectos parciales y temporales. Lo característico del alma frente al intelecto es su temporalidad. Su conocimiento es logos, decir, que implica transitividad, paso sucesivo de unos pensamientos a otros. La dialéctica es logos que permite superar la unilateralidad de una sola perspectiva temporal. El tiempo es un orden lógico, intelectivo, anterior tanto al alma como al universo.