DUALISM

A name given to those systems of philosophy which refer all existence to two ultimate principles. Dualism is a main feature in all the early Greek cosmogonies, and is that which distinguishes them from the eastern speculations on similar subjects, which mostly regard all things as emanating from a single principle. The dualistic hypothesis was, doubtle , originally suggested by the analogy of male and female in animal existence. The earliest forms under which the theory appeared are, as might be expected, rude in the extreme. Tl*e Orphic poets made the ultimate principles of all things to be Water and Night; by others JEther and Erebus, Time and Nece ity, are severally deemed worthy of this distinction. (Brandts, Gesch. der Phil. i. p. 71.; Artst. Metaph. xix. 3) The ancient Greek and Roman mythology was evidently constructed on this principle. (See Varro, De Re Rustic a, i. 2.) In its more philosophic form, the dualistic theory was maintained among the ancients by Pythagoras and many of the Ionian school; among the moderns, chiefly by Des cartes. {See arts. Ionic Philosophy, Cartes i an Philosophy.) It may be expre ed generally as the a umption of the coeternity and simultaneous development of the formative with the formed, of the natura naturans with the natura naturata. So the system of philosophy which regards matter and spirit as distinct principles is a species of dualism, as opposed to materialism. In Theology, the doctrine of the two sovereign principles of good and evil {see Manicheism) is also dualistic; and the high Calvmistic theory may be said to be a species of dualism. Viz. that all mankind are divided, in the eternal foreknowledge of God, and by his arbitrary decree, into two cla es, — tne elect and reprobate. DUAL NUMBER, in Grammar, is the name given to that form of the verb and substantive by which, in the ancient Greek, Sanscrit, and Gothic, and the modern Lithuanian languages, tivo persons or things are denoted, in contradistinction to plural, which expre es an indefinite number of persons or things. For full discu ions on the nature and peculiarity of the dual number, see Buttmann and Matthdt's Greek Grammar; see also the Penny Cyclop., and the authorities there referred to. [s. 379]