Dialectical monism
Dialectical monism is an ontological position which holds that reality is ultimately a unified whole, distinguishing itself from monism by asserting that this whole necessarily expresses itself in dualistic terms. For the dialectical monist, the essential unity is that of complementary polarities which, while opposed in the realm of experience and perception, are co-substantial in a transcendent sense.
Principles
To establish its premises, dialectical monism may posit a Universal Dialectic, which is seen as the fundamental principle of existence. The concept is similar to that of the Taiji or "Supreme Ultimate" in Taoism. Advocates assert that Taoism as well as some forms of Buddhism (most notably Zen or Chan) are based on an approach consistent with or identical to dialectical monism.
Ideas relating to "teleological evolution" are important in some progressive interpretations of dialectical monism. However, this element has not always been present historically, and is generally not present in contemporary dialectical monisms such as Taoism. It is important to note that teleological tendencies in dialectical monism can significantly differ from other variants of teleology if dialectical progression is linked to materialism, because such an interpretation is a naturalistic progression rather than a result of design or consciousness. However, non-materialistic philosophies exist which also are dialectical monisms, such as Actual Idealism.
Some variants of dialectical monism adhere to the view that all conditions exist at all times in unity and that it is our consciousness which separates them into dualistic forms. Other views maintain that the nature of dialectical synthesis dictates that the flow of change will tend toward a "spiral-shaped progression" rather than a perpetual non-progressive (repetitive) circling of history. For these dialectical monists, this explains the fact of physical self-organization in Nature, as well as the observed tendency for human societies to achieve gradual "progress" over time.
History
Dialectical monism has been mentioned in Western literature, although infrequently. Sartre used the term on at least one occasion (in an essay relating to Marxism) [1], although it is not clear that his interpretation was identical to that now advocated by modern adherents. Sartre may have used the term "Dialectical monism" to infer what he saw as absurd in the dogma of Marxist-Leninists non-dualistic interpretation of the dialectic, in which any oppositional view point was claimed to be non-dialectical rather than part of the dialectic itself.
Although the term has never been used outside the West, advocates maintain that dialectical monism has a much greater presence in Eastern traditions. A wide number of Taoist sources are cited, especially those which relate to the Taiji or yin-yang concepts. In addition, several Buddhist works are seen as containing strong elements of dialectical monism.
Buddhist influences
The Heart Sutra provides a notable expression of dialectical monism:
"Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness."
However, it is sometimes held that the Buddhist elements of dialectical monism are more accurately characterized as non-dualistic since they deny any fundamental sort of creative principle or "one thing," such as that posited by dialectical monism. See the Buddhist philosophy of emptiness.
In response, dialectical monists might reply that theirs is a "positive expression of nondualism," as opposed to the "negative" expression implied by the qualifier non in nondualism.
Nagarjuna, principal developer of the emptiness doctrine in Buddhism, had a perspective consistent with a broad dialectical monism:
"By and large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by a polarity, that of existence and non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'non-existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right discernment, 'existence' with reference to the world does not occur to one."
For Nagarjuna, the single essential substance of the world was "non-substance," or emptiness.
The Buddha himself expressed the core of dialectical monism thusly:
"Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two."
Pre-Socratic Western influences
Heraclitus is a notable early exception to the Eastern monopoly on dialectical monism:
"By cosmic rule, as day yields night, so winter summer, war peace, plenty famine. All things change. Fire penetrates the lump of myrrh, until the joining bodies die and rise again in smoke called incense." (fragment 36)
"Men do not know how that which is drawn in different directions harmonises with itself. The harmonious structure of the world depends upon opposite tension like that of the bow and the lyre."
- One must realize that war is shared and Conflict is Justice, and that all things come to pass in accordance with conflict.
-- Cited by Origen, Contra Celsum VI.28 (Diels-Kranz fragment 80)
- The way up and down are the same.
-- Cited by Hippolytus of Rome, Refutatio Omnium Haeresium IX.10.4 (Diels-Kranz fragment 60)
- It is wise, not listening to me but to the report (λόγος), to agree that all things are one.
-- Cited by Hippolytus, Refutatio IX.9.1 (Diels-Kranz fragment 50)
Parallels in Aztec philosophy
In its article on Aztec philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [2] describes Aztec (Nahua) metaphysics as a form of dialectical monism:
Although essentially processive and devoid of any permanent order, the ceaseless becoming of the cosmos is nevertheless characterized by an overarching balance, rhythm, and regularity: one provided by and constituted by teotl... Dialectical polar monism holds that: (1) the cosmos and its contents are substantively and formally identical with teotl; and (2) teotl presents itself primarily as the ceaseless, cyclical oscillation of polar yet complementary opposites.
Teotl's process presents itself in multiple aspects, preeminent among which is duality. This duality takes the form of the endless opposition of contrary yet mutually interdependent and mutually complementary polarities which divide, alternately dominate, and explain the diversity, movement, and momentary arrangement of the universe. These include: being and not-being, order and disorder, life and death, light and darkness, masculine and feminine, dry and wet, hot and cold, and active and passive. Life and death, for example, are mutually arising, interdependent, and complementary aspects of one and the same process.
Dao De Jing references
Chapter 42 of the Dao De Jing (from wikisource edition online) outlines a number-based cosmology which may be consistent with dialectical monism:
"The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonised by the Breath of Vacancy."
"What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue, to be as carriages without naves; and yet these are the designations which kings and princes use for themselves. So it is that some things are increased by being diminished, and others are diminished by being increased."
Several other chapters (including Chapter 1) make reference to concepts consistent with dialectical monism. The theme of yin and yang unified in Taiji is found throughout the Dao De Jing.
Contemporary references
"Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery - the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets - is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together." -- Alan Watts
See also
Inter-disciplinary relation