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| Is the coin heads, or tails? |
These might seem to you to be two words that mean
the same thing, subtly different terms, or completely distinct
concepts, depending on your background. In one set of definitions,
they mean the same thing – that things can be divided into two, or
sometimes more, categories. Self and not-self is a duality that is
important in some Buddhist traditions, while we might see theism and
non-theism as a duality in modern liberal Quakerism. In philosophy,
dualism refers generally to any division into two, but most often (as
in
Cartesian dualism) the
division of mind and body, or material and immaterial. In religion,
we speak of dualistic religions as those that posit a pair of
oppositional fundamental forces, generally – but not always –
good and evil, or a pair of oppositional divinities, or a divinity
and an opposing non-divine force. In mathematics, and most especially
with one famous example in physics, duality can refer to two distinct
systems or representations that are nonetheless equivalent, or
represent the same thing; we'll return to that key example later.
