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By dualism, I’m referring to the tendency of seeing two sides of an issue that appears to be connected yet different. This has been described as dualism, dialectic, etc, by various sources.

For instance, the tendency to see good and evil as two importance opposing forces; the historical East Asian philosophy of seeing the world in terms of “yin” and “yang”, etc.

There seems to be no strong reason to think of the world as naturally exhibiting dualism. However, people —- and especially those in history —- often tend to perceive dualism.

Are there any psychological or neurological findings that can shed light on this phenomenon?

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    $\begingroup$ "There seems to be no strong reason to think of the world as naturally exhibiting dualism". What makes you think this? There is good and bad, hot and cold, hungry and satiated, dark and light... with the mixtures in between causing "grey areas". $\endgroup$
    – Chris Rogers
    Commented Jun 4, 2021 at 4:50
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    $\begingroup$ I agree with @ChrisRogers - perceptions and emotions go from extremes to intermediates, physical stimuli do too, for that matter. Regardless the question whether this post is ontopic here I'm wondering if this question wouldn't fit philosophy.SE better? It's just that the first thing that springs to my mind is 'isn't just about everything dualistic?' $\endgroup$
    – AliceD ♦
    Commented Jun 4, 2021 at 6:49
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    $\begingroup$ Possible duplicate of Binary classification as a cognitive strategy? $\endgroup$
    – Arnon Weinberg ♦
    Commented Jun 4, 2021 at 18:05
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    $\begingroup$ @ArnonWeinberg indeed, and that person asked the question much more clearly than I did. My question should be closed. $\endgroup$
    – J Li
    Commented Jun 6, 2021 at 3:12

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