dichotomy

is a relationship which would often better be referred to with the term 'di-polarity.' A dichotomy is in this sense not substantial, but tensional. Distinctions open up zones of indecidability or indifference.

When you take a classical distinction of the political-philosophical tradition such as public/private, then I find it much less interesting to insist on the distinction and to bemoan the diminution of one of the terms, than to question the interweaving. But in order to understand what is really at stake here, we must learn to see these oppositions not as 'di-chotomies' but as 'di-polarities,' not substantial, but tensional. I mean that we need a logic of the field, as in physics, where it is impossible to draw a line clearly and separate two different substances. The polarity is present and acts at each point of the field. Then you may suddenly have zones of indecidability or indifference. ' (Agamben in Interview in German Law Journal 5(1)2004).

dichotomy, n.Definitions

dichotomy