What is Dualism - courtesy of A_Smoking_fox Options

What is dualism.

When we have established what we think dualism is, A_Smoking_Fox would like to branch off into and discuss different parts which will probably go into a new thread.

Which part of dualism are we interested to explore in this topic.

So any offers?

Yes, one source can have two effects which will be opposite one to the other. But these cases leave always open the approach of dealing with them as a total of the cause and its causations. Since, the target is to end up with one definition; even if I had never applied the term “dualism” to describe these cases, I guess the one covering the broader range of interpretations is the more useful, as basically it covers what dualism is for me, but include also another category.
Well that was useful, I can imagine us arguing about some dualistic aspects and having each one in our minds a different description of what we are speaking about.

But, do you insist on using the expression “different states”?
I think “states” leaving many aspects out of description and “different” does not presuppose opposition, two aspects could be irrelevant and still different.
Maybe we could use "elements"?

However, hot and cold also could be argued to come from the same source: stimulation of a body’s physical nervous system, which then subsequently differentiates the stimulation as hot and cold through discerning their dualistic dynamic together in relation to each other.

I will disagree here; body’s physical nervous system is just the medium for our mind to perceive kinetic molecular energy or the lack of it, as “hot” or “cold”. I mean, our perception reaches our mind through reaction of our physical nervous system, but there must be a cause for our physical nervous system to react to it and send the message, (which will be combined with intentions, or expectations etc at that moment and conclude if something is hot or cold, I could characterize water of the same temperature as hot or cold, depending on what I intent to do with it).

Okay, alia - I am cool with just using "elements" to reference the two that are in dualistic relationship with each other.

With regard to saying that they are different - well, the two elements have to be different (compared to each other), otherwise what is being discussed is not really two elements relationship together... it just ends up being one thing being talked about according to two different ways. i.e. using two different words for referencing the same thing.

Differentiation is not necessarily opposition. Opposition is a kind of dynamic that two different elements can engage when relating together - just as two different elements can relate together without necessarily opposing each other.