dialogue between/among/of

07:46 Aug 30, 2010 

I think your gut reaction is right and the link given by Maksym below supports it.

21:20 Aug 29, 2010 

Sheila: strictly speaking you're right, but I would accept this as representing the people (students, proponents etc.) metaphorically.
Also I have come to the following conclusion (without knowing just why it feels like this): "between" if the parties are named individually (e.g. dialogue between a theologian, a philosopher and a poet - "among" doesn't sound right); "among" if it's a named group of more than 2 people (e.g. dialogue among the students of philosophy).

18:20 Aug 29, 2010 

Dialogue is between people, about subjects. Surely you can't have a dialogue between or among theology, philosophy and/or science - only the people that study them.

14:06 Aug 29, 2010 

:)

13:57 Aug 29, 2010 

I would normally use "between" for 2 parties and "among" for more than 2. That's what I was taught at grammar school in the 1960s.