Intended Meaning

The intended meaning is that the law of duality, or complementary dualism, explains how each side affects the other and is affected by it, so that a state of adaptation arises between them Here, this duality is not an internal contradiction within the thing itself, but a relation between two distinct things

The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas

  • Type of argument: methodological
  • Movement of the argument: it makes duality a law of mutual influence and adaptation.
  • Central terms: duality, complementary dualism, mutual influence, adaptation.
  • Degree of centrality: central.

It provides an explanatory model for change based on the relation between two sides, and helps in reading phenomena as interaction in which there is no isolation.

Basis

  • Supporting text: “The law of duality/complementary dualism that explains mutual influence and adaptation.”

Degree of Documentation

  • Level: directly documented
  • Meaning of the level: the atom is based on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
  • Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted verbatim.

Its Function in the Book

Its function here is definitional; it sets the meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.

Editorial Note

The atom is linked to a broader explanatory structure of change.