ABSTRACT
This chapter explores why binary thinking has become the target of so much intellectual animosity. Binary thinking and binary concepts - such as ‘us and them’, ‘man and woman’, ‘normal and abnormal’ – are portrayed by its detractors as not only as the product of rigid and inflexible thinking, but also as tools of discrimination used to maintain the domination of the weak by the powerful. Hence the practice of binary thinking is dismissed as morally wrong, and the deconstruction of conceptual boundaries advocated as the alternative.
Hostility towards binary thinking is motivated by a variety of concerns. These range from a sense of unease towards the boundaries set by conventional rules governing behaviour and speech, to a suspicion of moral boundaries. The aim of this chapter is to provide a critique of the critique of binary concepts and behaviour. It claims that hostility towards binary distinctions is ultimately motivated by the impulse of dethroning the conceptual distinctions that give meaning to human experience.
