I argue that dualistic frameworks reached a limit in the 19th and early 20th centuries because the intellectual, cultural, and scientific developments during this period exposed the inadequacies and contradictions of dualism, particularly the Cartesian separation of mind and body, subject and object, or human and nature. These limitations became evident across various fields, from philosophy to science, and led to the emergence of alternative, non-dualistic paradigms.
1. The Crisis of Cartesian Dualism
Cartesian dualism—the separation of mind (res cogitans) and body (res extensa)—dominated Western thought from the 17th century onward. While it was instrumental in developing science and philosophy, by the 19th century, its limitations began to surface:
• Mind-Body Problem:
• Cartesian dualism left unresolved the question of how the immaterial mind interacts with the material body. This “mind-body problem” led to growing skepticism about dualism’s explanatory power.
• Example: Philosophers like Henri Bergson and William James critiqued dualism for failing to capture the lived, embodied nature of experience.
• Mechanistic View of Nature:
• Dualism contributed to a mechanistic and instrumental view of the natural world, which alienated humanity from nature and fostered ecological exploitation.
• This critique became especially relevant as industrialization accelerated environmental destruction.
2. Challenges from 19th-Century Science
• Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (1859):
• Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species challenged the Cartesian dualism of humans as separate from animals and nature. Evolutionary theory emphasized continuity between humans and the natural world, undermining the rigid distinction between mind and body.
• Emergence of Neuroscience:
• Advances in neuroscience revealed the physiological basis of mental processes, challenging the Cartesian view of the mind as entirely separate from the body. Mental phenomena increasingly appeared as embodied processes tied to the brain and nervous system.
• Thermodynamics and Systems Theory:
• 19th-century developments in thermodynamics and early systems theory highlighted the interconnectedness and dynamism of physical systems, undermining the static, compartmentalized view of the Cartesian world.
3. Philosophical Responses in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries
• German Idealism and Romanticism:
• Philosophers like Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Schelling critiqued the rigid dualism of Descartes, emphasizing the unity of mind and nature and the interconnectedness of all reality.
• Romantic thinkers rejected the mechanistic worldview of Cartesian dualism, focusing instead on wholeness, intuition, and imagination.
• Friedrich Nietzsche:
• Nietzsche deconstructed dualistic oppositions such as body/soul and reason/instinct, arguing that traditional dualisms suppress the embodied and instinctual aspects of life.
• Pragmatism:
• Philosophers like William James and John Dewey challenged dualism by emphasizing the practical, relational, and embodied nature of human thought and action.
• Phenomenology:
• Thinkers like Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty proposed phenomenology as a method to transcend dualism. Merleau-Ponty, for instance, emphasized the embodied nature of perception, rejecting the Cartesian split between subject and object.
4. Cultural and Social Critiques of Dualism
• Industrialization and Alienation:
• The mechanistic worldview associated with Cartesian dualism contributed to the alienation of humans from their labor, their bodies, and the natural world during the industrial revolution. Thinkers like Karl Marx and John Ruskin critiqued this dehumanization.
• Feminist Critiques:
• Feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft and later Simone de Beauvoir critiqued the dualistic associations of reason with masculinity and the body/emotion with femininity, arguing that dualism reinforced gender hierarchies.
5. Scientific and Philosophical Developments in the Early 20th Century
• Einstein’s Theory of Relativity:
• Relativity undermined Cartesian notions of absolute space and time, revealing the interdependence of observer and observed, and challenging the dualistic separation of subject and object.
• Quantum Mechanics:
• Quantum theory revealed the interconnectedness and uncertainty of the material world, challenging the deterministic and reductionist assumptions of dualism.
• Freud’s Psychoanalysis:
• Freud’s model of the unconscious blurred the line between reason and emotion, mind and body, challenging the Cartesian notion of a rational, self-transparent subject.
• Ecological Thinking:
• Early 20th-century thinkers like Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson critiqued the Cartesian dualism that treated nature as an object for human exploitation, emphasizing interconnectedness and the need for ecological ethics.
6. The Pendulum Swings Toward Non-Dualism
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the limitations of dualistic frameworks had prompted a shift toward non-dualistic and holistic paradigms:
• Eastern Philosophical Influences:
• Western thinkers began to engage with non-dualistic traditions like Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, which offered alternatives to Cartesian dualism by emphasizing the unity of mind, body, and cosmos.
• Holistic and Process Philosophy:
• Philosophers like Alfred North Whitehead developed process philosophy, which emphasized the relational and dynamic nature of reality, moving beyond Cartesian separations.
• Existentialism:
• Thinkers like Heidegger and Sartre focused on the situated, embodied nature of existence, rejecting the Cartesian abstraction of the “thinking self.”
Conclusion
The 19th and early 20th centuries marked the limits of Cartesian dualism as its inadequacies became apparent across science, philosophy, and culture. Challenges from evolutionary theory, neuroscience, quantum mechanics, and phenomenology revealed the interconnected and dynamic nature of reality, undermining the rigid separation of mind and body, subject and object, and humanity and nature. These developments prompted a swing of the intellectual pendulum toward non-dualistic, holistic, and relational paradigms that continue to shape contemporary thought.
