Dualism demands hyperseparation achieved by magnifying differences and denying shared qualities

Evidence

Because the other is to be treated as not merely different but inferior, part of a lower, different order of being, differentiation from it demands not merely distinctness but radical exclusion, not merely separation but hyperseparation. Radical exclusion is a key indicator of dualism. … The relation of radical exclusion has special characteristics. For distinctness, for non-identity or otherness, there need be only a single characteristic which is different, possessed by the one but not the other, in order to guarantee distinctness according to the usual treatment of identity (e.g. in Leibniz’s Law). Where items are constructed or construed according to dualistic relationship, however, the master tries to magnify, to emphasise and to maximise the number and importance of differences and to eliminate or treat as inessential shared qualities, and hence to achieve maximum separation. ‘I am nothing at all like this inferior other’ is the motto associated with radical exclusion. Denial or minimisation of continuity is important in eliminating identification and sympathy between members of the dominating class and the dominated, and in eliminating possible confusion between powerful and powerless. It also helps to establish separate ‘natures’ which explain and justify widely differing privileges and fates. A major aim of dualistic construction is polarisation, to maximise distance or separation between the dualised spheres and to prevent their being seen as continuous or contiguous. Separation may be established by denying or minimising overlap qualities and activities, and by the erection of rigid barriers to prevent contact. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 201

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the precise meaning of ‘hyperseparation’ / ‘radical exclusion’ as the defining feature of dualism.
• XREF: Builds directly off the earlier extracted claim that ‘Dualism arises from denied dependency on a subordinated other’ (ch8) and extends Merchant’s reason/nature division with the mechanism of separation. — connects to: Hyperseparation from the feminine makes others only contingent means to self-contained ends — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 529; Old oppressions stored as dualisms pave the way for new ones. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 181; Dualism arises from denied dependency on a subordinated other. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 173 (+9 more)
• ADDENDUM: The ‘I am nothing at all like this inferior other’ motto and hyperseparation logic supports the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ essay’s point about class/identity signaling being engineered to mark difference.

Broader Connections

• Dualism renders the lower order a mere resource excluded from the moral sphere #expands (0.90) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 218
• Reversal that revalues the subordinated identity without restructuring it stays trapped in dualism #expands (0.80) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 244
• Denying shared humanity creates non-relation rather than strangeness within a group #exemplifies (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 400
• Dualistic blind spots structurally prevent the master culture from perceiving ecological peril #expands (0.75) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 739