What is another word or phrase for this? One of the over aching themes in my WIP is my MC, an alien race on a different plant, struggling to find the balance between light and dark, good and evil, love and hate, etc. etc. Dualist concepts I don't want to use "duality of human nature" because they (my characters) aren't human (I was even reluctant to use words like "man" and "woman" but i relented because it got too complicated). "Duality of nature" is something else entirely (quantum mechanics). Is there another way I can describe the balance between these concept without being too wordy (i.e. "between light and dark, good and evil, love and hate, etc. etc.") ETA: this is what I'm working with: ...Olun must discover the balance between [love and hate, life and death, hope and suffering] before everything she has come to love is destroyed.
I would question the premise. I don't see a duality in human nature or a need for balance. No one says, 'I'm being too good these days so I must do something bad to regain my balance'. Light and dark, good and evil, love and hate, etc are relative terms. We do many things. Some turn out better than others. There is no objectivity here. The real problem is that we can only really see what's going on in hindsight. The most terrible atrocities are committed by those who think they're building a new and better world. Crimes are committed by those who are trying to set things right. Grudges can be handed down from generation to generation and the future can be sacrificed on the altar of the past. What benefits one person may be detrimental to others. Long-term benefits can be sacrificed for short term gains. Everyone thinks they're the hero. Everyone thinks they're doing good. But what they do makes all hell break lose. To answer your question, it's not an alternative term for 'duality of human nature' you're looking for, it's ways to express ignorance and single-mindedness.
Discover the balance between conflicting emotions? Counterbalance opposing conditions/situations/circumstances/emotions?
If there is a balance to be gained, it may be between logical thinking and emotional responses. You could include a variety of thinking styles and emotions and call it 'the spectrum of mind'.
Ok, yes. This is a big theme in my novel. My MC is learning this. She is also learning that there is 2 sides to everything. Leaning too far in one direction will throw everything into chaos. She knows people (in her world) are not completely good or completely bad but in the grey area between. Events happen and she is literally thrown in a state of limbo (like im talking spiritual limbo, the "waiting room" between heaven and hell...) And needs to sort through and understand both sides in order to stop the threat in the real world.
For example, one of the things she learns is that there can be no life without suffering. In their religion, the Creator God made Light and Dark (a Goddess of day and a Goddess of night). One cannot exist without the other. Part of her arc was being forced to leave her clan for another clan. But she learns that, like Light and Dark, her clan cannot exist without this one. The "bad guy" thinks differently. In order to protect their clan and maintain their way of life free of outside influences, she does bad things in the name of the greater good. People die, but they are casualties to a cause. She only sees one way. Im stuck trying to sum this up into 1-2 sentences
... the balance between opposing forces... ... the balance between the internal and the external... ... the balance between self and not-self...
Darkness is actually the absence of light not it's opposite. One can exist without the other. But you do need both to have 'contrast' and without contrast, there can be a lack of meaning. There are many things which you could attribute to the creation of the gods, like land and sea and animals and plants and fish and the moon and stars. These things don't have opposites. 'Symbiosis' might be the word you're looking for. Two clans working together for mutual benefit. Those who try to justify doing bad things for a greater good may use an analogy like, 'you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs'. It's only later when they look back, do they realize that all they've done is break a lot of eggs and they don't have any omelets.
Is this sci-fi or fantasy? In fantasy, you can do anything. My fantasy world has a fundamental law that demands that everything is in balance. In sci-fi, it's harder to get away with. There's nothing inherent that says there must be day and night. The inhabitants of one side of a tidelocked planet might never know one or the other. Why can there be no life without suffering? I'd say a lot of life exists without suffering as we know it. In fantasy, these questions can be answered with "because the gods will it so". In sci-fi, not so much. Unless your MC is on a journey to discover there are no gods. I'd also say - no one is unambiguously good or evil.
Series takes place on a different planet, but this book is fantasy (books afterward, with the arrival of humans and technology, then it becomes more science fiction) they live in harsh terrain. if you can find a way to get past the drought, the heat, the food scarcity... then you can live. in the mountains: if you can suffer through the cold, the sickness, the predators, then you can live to see the finer things life has to offer. basically, "its hard now, but its all worth it in the end," type of mentality. also, this is a theme as well. she learns this. Spoiler: context in another thread, i mentioned that her people believe themselves to be "good" without the idea that they can also be "bad/evil." if you are "evil" its because you did something at some point in your life to offend the Gods and they cursed you. this mentality is flipped on its head in the second book when humans arrive, and the MC of that one learns that she and the rest of her people can be just as bad/evil/cruel as humans.
as i'm reading responses and commenting.... i realized: yin and yang! the story has a lot to do with yin/yang principles and concepts. obviously, there is no such thing as Chinese philosophy in this fictional world.... but i like @Naomasa298 's "strike a balance" over "discovers the balance" and @Xoic 's "paradox" (though the word oddly enough reminds me of time travel, for some reason...) "strike a balance between the paradoxes of life"
But that isn't in the right format. You can't substitute it into a setntence where you could use "The duality of Man". Mayber somehting like "The puzzle of life's paradoxes?" Too wordy and vague. I know!! "The Riddle of Steel!!" Ok, no. What you're talking about here is actually a huge subject in philosophy and psychology, usually just called The Problem Of The Opposites or something similar. Its at the very basis of many if not all creation stories of the world in most if not all religions.
How about something like "Reconciling The Opposites"? Or "Reconciliation Of Opposites"? Finding the Balance of Opposing Forces Standing on the Border between Light and Dark (as a figure of speech, light and dark representing all oppositions) Balanced Opposition ("You must practice the doctrine of Balanced Opposition, young Padawan")
Bing and Bong maybe? Shtip and Shtup? (Joking of course, but you could just make up words like this to represent the Yin and Yang concepts.)
