From: n8946410@animal.cc.wwu.edu (Cameron Parish)
Newsgroups: pnw.general
Subject: Re: Dualistic vs Wholistic...
Summary: Descartes and Alan Watts in a fistfight
Date: 20 Aug 92 18:29:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: henson.1992Aug20.182957.18778
Distribution: pnw
Organization: Western Washington University


	I'm jumping belatedly and uninformedly into the discussion, so please
forgive me if I restate the obvious.

In article <1992Aug19.170812.15939@eskimo.celestial.com> kurt@eskimo.celestial.com (Kurt Cockrum) writes:
>In article <UNCLE.92Aug18174418@milton.milton.u.washington.edu> uncle@milton.milton.u.washington.edu (Milton Friedmen) writes:

>[kurt here]
>Maybe we should define "educated" as anybody with school exposure beyond
>the AA or AS level, i. e. somebody who stayed in school past the point
>where they could have gotten their Associates degree (the academic rung
>below baccalaureate).  Maybe I should make that school exposure past high
>school?

	Why use any amount of schooling to determine one's level
of education?  Education might be _correlated_ with schooling, but 
I haven't seen much evidence of it being _caused_ by schooling.  ;-)

(Of course I've got a little bit of ego at stake in this, being just
an uppity undergrad.)

>>                                    But seriously, there's lots of different
>>terminology out there and not a lot of standardization. 
>>>
>>> The problem
>>>with dualities is that they ignore all the stuff inbetween, or shoehorn
>>>the stuff into one or the other pigeonhole, no matter how absurd or painful
>>>the fit.
>>
>>This is a description of a phenomenon which (I assume) is obvious to any
>>thinking person who has meaningful philosophical discussions (as opposed to
>>people who argue semantics or just yell at each other).  It isn't just about
>>sex and sexual stereotypes and it's not*fuzzy* at all.  It's only becomes
>>fuzzy when you hide it behind words no one knows.  It should be stated 
>>boldly.  There are no absolutes!  There is no point!

	Around here ('here' meaning Fairhaven College, a fairly hippie-ish
place), "dualism" refers to that 'shoehorning of all the stuff inbetween'
into one of two camps.  It's not a fuzzy concept at all, *in these circles*, 
because it's been refined by lots of meaningful discussion. (And, as a 
bisexual woman, I find it to be a very useful concept, for whatever 
that's worth.)  Of course, a lot of people who talk about 'dualism' are
pretty fuzzy-minded.  :)  	  
	Is the problem just that this use of the word 'dualism' hasn't
made it out of the newage pop-philosophy ghetto? Or do you think that 
dualism (in this sense) is fundamentally flawed?  

	BTW, a couple of years ago Fairhaven had a huge class called 
'Canons in Conflict', in which the hippies'/leftists'/feminists' supposed
destruction of dualism was a major theme.  It was funny: we wound up 
dividing the history of thought into 'dualistic' and 'nondualistic' camps,
congratulating ourselves all the while for our rejection of dualism.  :)

>>For reference I should say that I do have two BS degrees (or is that "2
>>degrees of BS?")  In fact I remember taking a philosophy class in which we
>>discussed "dualism".  But this dualism was set against materialism,
>>phenomenolism and other isms.  It referred to a belief that there are two
>>realms: the physical and the metaphysical.  This seems only dimly related to
>>your use of the word.  For example, it said nothing about sexual sterotypes.
>>Perhaps your word "dualism" comes from political science or psychology?  Do
>>tell.
>
>My usage, I think, comes from Zen and Daoist schools of thought
				       ^^^^^^
	I'm sorry.  Please indulge my pet peeve. The standard spelling is
"Taoist."

> [much omitted]
>and personal reflections on "the power of 2" and
>its apparent pervasiveness, akin to that of PI and E :) .  It's one of a
>small, conspiratorial cabal of Universal Constants that Control the Universe
>:) :) ...

	*hee hee hee*  I can just see the slogans now: "Down with 'h'!"
"Smash gravity!"  (As Learned Leftwing Intellectuals discuss the 
nasty dualism of kitchen magnets, and legislatures finally manage to pass
laws requiring that pi be equal to three.)


Cam Parish, LearnedLeftwingIntellectual-in-training