---
slug: oip-node-c14-duality-complementarity-dialectic
title: Node C14: Duality / Complementarity / Dialectic
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip-node-c14-duality-complementarity-dialectic
---

# Node C14: Duality / Complementarity / Dialectic

C14 — Duality / Complementarity / Dialectic
{
  "id": "C14",
  "claim": "Fundamental aspects of reality are organized in opposed, mutually-defining pairs; neither pole is reducible to the other, and both are necessary for the full description.",
  "domain": ["quantum physics", "classical mechanics", "formal logic", "philosophy", "psychology", "theology"],
  "pattern": ["complementarity", "duality", "opposition", "enantiodromia", "wave_particle"],
  "mechanism": "In quantum mechanics: conjugate variables (position/momentum) are Fourier transforms; precise knowledge of one implies maximal uncertainty in the other. In mechanics: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In logic: a proposition and its negation jointly exhaust possibility. In psychology: Jung's enantiodromia — the tendency of psychic contents to transform into their opposites.",
  "scale": "quantum → cosmic",
  "claim_tier": "T1 (physics) / T3 (dialectic)",
  "sources": [
    "Bohr, N. (1928). 'The Quantum Postulate and the Recent Development of Atomic Theory.' Nature, 121, 580-590. [Complementarity lecture.]",
    "Newton, I. (1687). Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Lex III: Actioni contrariam semper et aequalem esse reactionem.",
    "Heraclitus, fr. B60, B88 (c. 500 BCE). [The road up and the road down are one and the same.]",
    "Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, ch. 2 (c. 6th c. BCE). [When beauty is abstracted, then ugliness has been implied.]",
    "Jung, C.G. (1951). Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. Princeton/Bollingen. [Enantiodromia.]"
  ],
  "dual": "None — it IS the dual principle. The non-dual would be a monism where all oppositions dissolve into unity.",
  "falsifier": "A fundamental physical quantity with no conjugate/opposite — no uncertainty relation, no complementary variable. Or a complete description of a system requiring only one pole of any putative duality.",
  "rival_frame": "Complementarity is a limitation of quantum formalism, not a feature of reality. Classical physics has no such duality — it is an artifact of our mathematical description, not a structural property of the universe. The philosophical extensions (Heraclitus, Taoism, Jung) are poetic projections onto physics.",
  "independence_check": "HIGH. Bohr (physics, Copenhagen, 1928) derived complementarity from wave-particle duality experiments. Newton (mechanics, Cambridge, 1687) derived action-reaction from collision experiments. Heraclitus (philosophy, Ephesus, ~500 BCE) derived opposition from observation of natural cycles. Taoism (religion, China, ~6th c. BCE) derived yin-yang from agricultural and astronomical observation. Jung (psychology, Zurich, 1951) derived enantiodromia from clinical practice. Five civilizations, five millennia, five methods, same pattern: reality is structured by opposition.",
  "pattern_type": "structural",
  "maps_to_axiom": ["A1"]
}

---

## Corpus map
- Same node, other planes: [Encyclopedia C14](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c14) · [Inventory invariant](/a/oip-invariant-14-314-duality-complementarity-dialectic)
- Edges touching C14: [convergence edge 3](/a/oip-convergence-edge-3)
- Catalogue hub: [Public Article](/a/oip-convergence-public-article) · [Schema](/a/oip-convergence-schema)
