the subject that get more attention have been the onesthat either 1) affirm the maintenance of the left/right dualism as inevitableor 2) propose an ethic of moving 'beyond' the dualism.Norberto Bobbio and the"dyad"Of the works of most impact on the subject, NorbertoBobbio's Right and Left: Reasons andSignificance of a Political Distinction[2]certainly stands out. Its impact, as Iwill show, is not due to its thoughts being in direct correspondence topolitics as a 'thing in itself', as the book claims in a rather Kantianfashion. The book is, instead, a greatrepresentation of the dominant discourse about the left/right dualism, ordyad, as Bobbio calls it. His thesis -better said - the way that the dominant discourse on left and right haspresented itself, can be ascribed to the traditional Western metaphysicalapproach, although that is not its origin. Dualisms - for our understanding here, forms of thought and action thatare organized around oppositions that together supposedly represent a totalityof possibilities - have been central to Western culture.[3] Bobbio states:"Ina universe as conflicting as that of politics, which demands continually theidea of the game of parts and the effort to defeat the opponent, the divisionof the universe in two hemispheres is not a simplification, but an accuraterepresentation of reality."[4] Clearly, politics is aconflicting business. The belief thatuniversal harmony can be achieved is utopian and, historically, has beentyrannical. But Bobbio is sayingsomething very different, of course (and interestingly opposite). For him, politics is about defeating an "opponent", and not people meeting tonegotiate their differences and their needs from one another, for example (orcoming together to affirm and be different things?). The "universe" is seen as inherently,fundamentally dual, and these two sides are in a struggle ofdomination/subordination. "Politics" is equated with this "game", in which,according to Bobbio, one has to pick a side, as a viewer of a sports matchinevitably does (he would be very disappointed to know that I am a Brazilianthat watches soccer games and usually does not pick a side). The 'enemy' exists in this ethic as somethingto be annihilated, or to be made "like us", and according to Bobbio,as both sides will tend to regard one another as 'evil', they will make itcentral to their discourse the annihilation or incorporation of the Other. Bobbio explains the myth of the eternalcosmic war:"In humanrelations, the extreme example of antithesis is constituted by war; but thedichotomous logic, on the other hand, is not strange to the proper traditionalview, religious or metaphysical, including the one on the natural world(light-darkness, order-chaos and, at the limit, God-demon)."[5] What motivates, according to Bobbio, the need for wars- and politics as war - is an innate, cosmic-oriented quality that, "atthe limit..." is governed by the dualism "God-demon". Bobbio claims to see the true meaning of allreligions and metaphysical "traditional" views. Metaphysics has had as one of itsmethodological instruments, and even foundational grounds, the view that theworld can be explained through dualisms - because the world has been regardedas inherently dual and moral. It hasdone this regardless of the effects of its theories on the world, since itconsiders itself as true in every way, and every