Questioning Nineteenth-Century Assumptions About Knowledge: Dualism

Questioning Nineteenth-Century Assumptions about Knowledge, III: Dualism provides an in-depth look at "dualism" in the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities in detailed and wide-ranging discussions among experts from across the disciplines. Issues explored include the questionable necessity of a transcendent nomos; individualistic approaches versus systems ontology; and how the divide between material and formal rationality might impinge on the possibility, but not the inevitability, of progress. A combination of detailed articles and invigorating follow-up discussions, this volume showcases debates over the status and validity of dualism. Of special interest are the examination of such topics as developing alternatives to traditional dualistic categories through a new approach based on biological naturalism, challenges to the dualism of people and things, the imperfectness and subjectivity of perception, and overcoming the dualism of philosophy and science.

Richard E. Lee is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Fernand Braudel Center at Binghamton University, State University of New York.