Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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DICHOTOMISM

The doctrine of extreme duality, which views human beings as composed literally of two separate parts, body and soul. In this primitive understanding, all consciousness is attributed to the soul alone, and everything physical to the body alone. In modern times, Cartesianism is a form of dichotomism. but this is not the biblical or the Christian concept, which emphasizes the unity of the human soul and body to form one substance. (Etym. Greek dicha, in tow + temno, to cut.)