Dictionary.net

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

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

A view of man as constituted of two original and independent elements, as matter and spirit.

A system which accepts two gods, or two original principles, one good and the other evil.

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.

The theory that each cerebral hemisphere acts independently of the other.

A view of man as constituted of two original and independent elements, as matter and spirit.

A system which accepts two gods, or two original principles, one good and the other evil.

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.

The theory that each cerebral hemisphere acts independently of the other.

A twofold division; the doctrine of two independent and separate natures in man, the spiritual and the bodily; the theory that there are two independent eternal principles, one evil and the other good.

The doctrine of two gods, one good, the other evil: the dividing into two: a twofold division: a system founded on a double principle. "An inevitable dualism bisects nature, so that each thing is a half, and suggests another to make it whole; as spirit, matter; man, woman; subjective, objective; in, out; upper, under; motion, rest; yea, nay.... The same dualism underlies the nature and condition of man."-Emerson. Hence- (a) the philosophical exposition of the nature of things by the adoption of two dissimilar primitive principles not derived from each other. Dualism is chiefly confined to the adoption of two fundamental beings, a good and an evil one, as is done in the oriental religions, and to the adoption of two different principles in man, viz. a spiritual and a corporeal principle. (b) In theol. the doctrine of those who maintain that only certain elected persons are capable of admission to eternal happiness, and that all the rest will be subjected to eternal condemnation. (c) Met. the doctrine of those who maintain the existence of spirit and matter as distinct substances, in opposition to idealism, which maintains we have no knowledge or assurance of the existence of anything but our own ideas or sensations. Dualism may correspond with realism in maintaining that our ideas of things are true transcripts of the originals or rather of the qualities inherent in them, the spirit acting as a mirror and reflecting their true images, or it may hold that, although produced by outward objects, we have no assurance that in reality these at all correspond to our ideas of them, or even that they produce the same idea in two different minds.

A theory or system of thought which recognizes two independent principles. [Fr.]

n. The dividing into two; a two-fold division; two-fold state; a belief in the existence of two dissimilar primitive principles in nature, or in the constitution of man.