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dualism definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the doctrine that reality consists of two basic opposing elements, often taken to be mind and matter (or mind and body), or good and evil

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1794 1. a theory that considers reality to consist of two irreducible elements or modes 2. the quality or state of being dual or of having a dual nature 3. a. a doctrine that the universe is under the dominion of two opposing principles one of which is good and the other evil b. a view of human beings as constituted of two irreducible elements (as matter and spirit) • dualist noun • dualistic adjective • dualistically adverb

Britannica Concise

Use of two irreducible, heterogeneous principles (sometimes in conflict, sometimes complementary) to analyze the knowing process (epistemological dualism) or to explain all of reality or some broad aspect of it (metaphysical dualism). Examples of epistemological dualism are being and thought and subject and object; examples of metaphysical dualism are good and evil, God and the world, and body and spirit. Dualism is distinguished from monism and pluralism. Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism are good examples of highly dualistic religions; in E. Asia, the yin-yang principle demonstrates complementary dualism.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 being twofold; duality. 2 Philos. the theory that in any domain of reality there are two independent underlying principles, e.g. mind and matter, form and content (cf. IDEALISM, MATERIALISM). 3 Theol. a the theory that the forces of good and evil are equally balanced in the universe. b the theory of the dual (human and divine) personality of Christ. Derivatives: dualist n. dualistic adj. dualistically adv.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dualism Du"al*ism, n. [Cf. F. dualisme.] State of being dual or twofold; a twofold division; any system which is founded on a double principle, or a twofold distinction; as: (a) (Philos.) A view of man as constituted of two original and independent elements, as matter and spirit. (Theol.) (b) A system which accepts two gods, or two original principles, one good and the other evil. (c) The doctrine that all mankind are divided by the arbitrary decree of God, and in his eternal foreknowledge, into two classes, the elect and the reprobate. (d) (Physiol.) The theory that each cerebral hemisphere acts independently of the other. An inevitable dualism bisects nature, so that each thing is a half, and suggests another thing to make it whole. --Emerson.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Dualism is the state of having two main parts or aspects, or the belief that something has two main parts or aspects. (FORMAL) ...the Gnostic dualism of good and evil struggling for supremacy.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Parseeism, Zoroastrianism, Mazdeism, Manicheism, doctrine of two supreme principles (good and evil). 2. (Met.) Natural realism, doctrine of two primal realities (mind and matter).

Moby Thesaurus

Janus, acosmism, allotheism, ambiguity, ambivalence, anthropolatry, anthropomorphism, anthropotheism, autotheism, biformity, bifurcation, conjugation, cosmotheism, deism, dichotomy, ditheism, doubleness, doublethink, doubling, duality, duplexity, duplication, duplicity, dyotheism, equivocality, halving, henotheism, hylotheism, irony, monolatry, monotheism, multitheism, myriotheism, pairing, pantheism, physicomorphism, physitheism, pluralism, polarity, polytheism, psychotheism, tetratheism, theism, theopantism, theriotheism, tritheism, twinning, two-facedness, twoness, zootheism