Christian Cyclopedia

In metaphysics, assumption of 2 mutually hostile superior beings, one representing everything good and beneficial to man, the other the source of all sin and evil, as in Zoroastrianism* (see also Parsi) and in Gnosticism.* In philos., the view that in the world there are 2 principles, or substances, which are wholly indep. and totally different from each other: the spiritual and the corporeal, mind and matter. Theistic, or Biblical, dualism asserts essential difference bet. Creator and creation. Dualism is opposed to monism,* pluralism,* and some forms of pantheism.* See also Descartes, René.