Dualistic thinking Options

Dualistic thinking is very relevant to people following spiritual paths of any kind, since it involves believers who claim to see and experience another existence and others who having not experienced anything they would describe as other-worldy, disregard these claims and it therefore divides people into two camps.

The language used is also a form of dualism as it separates entities into good and bad and places into discrete areas thus: Heaven and Hell.

Is dualistic thinking useful and a good way of hanging ideas on hooks for further exploration or does it lead to extremes of thought that lack balance and settle people into positions that are hard to find their way out of?

That’s a very interesting discussion. From my point of view dualistic approach of a concept is a useful method to simplify complicate aspects. Assorting meanings, substances, etc in two opposite (or complement) categories make them easier to be presented, explained, comprehended, argued about, and in general been approached. As long as it is used, as such, it could be quite useful and I can’t find any reason why it shouldn’t been used. But only as long as it is perceived as a sophistical machination and doesn’t become self intended.

I would like to make a comment on the strict meaning of the term. Dualism presumes separate origin of two different and irreducible principles, if a theory, doctrine, philosophy, etc at some point unites the two elements in a common origin, it can’t be considered dualistic. Consequently Yang and Yin principles or the Christians’ approach to God-Devil concepts are not dualistic, as they do not presume separate origin of the two elements. Examples of totally dualistic religions are Zoroastrism and various Gnostic sects (Catharism, Manichaeism, etc) but even in them separate origin presumption is not very clear at some points.

I would like also to mention the following argument about the contradiction of dualism : According to dualism creation consists of pairs of opposite elements of a separate origin, Good-Evil are of opposite origin and the same applies to soul and body (or mind and matter). If soul and body are viewed from the dualistic perception (separate origin) then since neither of them is purely evil by nature, the existence of an Evil mind (principle) is impossible in a dualistic creation and consequently the Good-Evil duality does not exist. (By the way that’s not my argument and I would appreciate if someone could remind me who formulated it. I am breaking my head to remember where I have read this).

Pythagoras (all things are composed of contraries, soul-body duality) and Empedocles (the world is dominated alternately by two opposing principles) theories are dualistic. Plato’s philosophy (soul exists independently of the body, the world of Ideas as an opposite of material worlds) also contains dualistic elements. That doesn’t diminishes their value, or the ideas that we can draw from them. (Though, personally I always preferred Heraclitus and Aristotle, to them).

If, when presenting my thoughts I‘ll see that I can do it better using dualistic approach of a subject, I will do it. At the same moment I don’t think that my views are dualistic in anything (and by that I don’t mean that I have manage to reach monism, but rather that I am in a pluralistic state of mind).