二元对立与二元论 Binary Opposition and Dualism

二元对立是用来表示一对相反的东西。在西方，这个观念可以追溯到西方传统信念，认为现实的本质是二元的。希腊哲学家柏拉图 (公元前429-347) 的哲学可能是最早的有系统的二元概念。

在柏拉图的哲学中，存在着的最终的二元是永恒存在与变易、心与物、物体与灵魂。柏拉图相信真正的本质不是物体而是理念，物体只是理念的非完美摹本。这些理念不但构成世界，也使这个世界可被理解。因为理念是理解的根据，学者在理解的过程中一定要了解理念。

笛卡尔开始了现代版的二元论。笛卡尔相信存在着两种物质：物体或身体的主要性质是空间的伸延，而心灵的主要性质是思考。笛卡尔声称思考的心灵与伸延的身体分开存在。所以，心灵的本质是思想，是与身体不同的物质。

笛卡尔的二元论使他很难阐述心物如何关联及互相沟通。以柏拉图而言，他认为灵魂在持续的轮回或转生的过程中先存在于物体，并于物体消灭后继续存在。对笛卡尔来说，心灵如何与物体相互联系的问题实际上无法解决，因为他假设心物代表两种不同的物质。

两种对立力量间的挣扎看来是西方社会的基本错觉。在西方历史里的矛盾纠纷中，它一直被用来当作消灭‘他者’的凭据。

我们可以这么说，如果西方今日用相同的托词来解决世界纠纷，这个世界会变得更加危险。

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Binary opposition is a term used to mean a pair of opposites. In the West, the idea can be traced to the traditional believe in western philosophy that reality is essentially dual in nature. Probably the earliest systematic concept of dualism stems from the philosophy of the Greek philosopher Plato (429-347 BC).

In Plato’s philosophy there is an ultimate dualism of being and becoming, of ideas and matter, of body and soul. Plato believed that the true substances are not physical bodies, but the eternal Forms of which bodies are imperfect copies. These Forms not only make the world possible, they also make it intelligible. Because Forms are the grounds of intelligibility, they are what the intellect must grasp in the process of understanding.

Descartes originated the more modern versions of dualism. Descartes believed that there were two different kinds of substance: matter or body, of which the essential property is that it is spatially extended; and mind, of which the essential property is that it thinks. Descartes argues that the mind, a thinking thing, can exist apart from its extended body. And therefore, the mind is a substance distinct from the body, a substance whose essence is thought.

Descartes’ dualism made it difficult for him to describe how the body and mind could relate and interact upon each other. In the case of Plato, he argued that the soul both pre-existed and survived the body, going through a continual process of reincarnation or "transmigration". For Descartes, the question of how the mind interacts with the body was virtually unsolvable because he assumed that mind and body represent two distinct substances.

The struggle between the two competing forces seems to be the standard delusion of the Western society and it has been used as the justification for the demonization of the "other" in almost all conflicts in their history.

One can assume that the world is getting more dangerous if the West today use the same justification to resolve war conflicts.