Investigation of Unfolding Dualities in Principal Typologies
Background
Unfolding dualities with their dialectical structure are a fascinating and poorly studied aspect of Principal Typologies.
They have been developed in a haphazard fashion over the past 40 years.
The very first unfolding duality was found in the in the late 1980's and subsequently published in Working with Values (Ch.6) in 1995. At that time the existence of a Taxonomy was not appreciated, and a special label for the dialectic seemed unnecessary.
and were both developed in detail in the early days without awareness of the presence of an unfolding duality.
The next appearance of what became labelled as a dialectic unfolding duality was in the identity development methods, subsequently re-named . The clue here came from the unmistakable striking perennial controversies, specifically the mind-body problem.
When the typology was formulated much later in 2012-13, clarification of its unfolding duality was unsuccessful.
Finally, when the Change Domain was investigated in the 2020s, there was uncertainty as to the correct ordering of the . Its unfolding duality was then given attention to help confirm the proposed ordering.
The only missing Typology at this point is that within the . When formulated, attention will be given to its unfolding duality.
Moving Forward
Like most phenomena, an unfolding duality (uD) can best be appreciated by comparison with other similar uDs.
Given the above background, several questions have to be asked and answered:
- Do the and possess a uD?
- If the uD is dialectic in nature, does the system—thesis + antithesis → synthesis which is the thesis at the next higher level—apply in every Principal Typology uD?
- Are uD perennial controversies only characteristic of the or are they evident as some form of polarization within social life and /or philosophical theorizing in all Principal Typologies.
All these questions have now been pursued systematically with illuminating results. In this section, each unfolding duality has been posted using the same format so that similarities and differences can be easily identified.
The reader will have enough material to make their own judgements. However the reader will be given links to detailed information on each Principal Typology.
- See a summary of dualities in Principal Typologies.
- Commence with exploration of the decision methods (PH'1).
Originally posted: 1-Aug-2026.
