DUALISM

Charles François (2004). DUALISM, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(1): 987.

Collection	International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
Year	2004
Vol. (num.)	2(1)
ID	◀ 987 ▶
Object type	Epistemology, ontology or semantics

The theoretical view according to which irreducible distinctions can be made between two entities.

The tendency to dualistic thinking is obviously a very basic characteristic of human nature (or possibly of the brain's workings).

Systemics is undoubtedly colored by dualism from its very origin, when distinguishing the “system” from its “environment”; or “observer” and “observed”. This bias is however at least partly corrected by the admission of multiple interrelations at many levels of complexity, as for example in process theory, in dissipative structuration or in networks.

See also