It's just a socially-ingrained way of thinking. The human brain really is wired to sort things into binary systems. It was a mark of our future promise as a thinking species when that unsung genius realized that you could count in other ways than "1", "2", "Many"...
In some sense, we still interpret the world in dichotomies based on our lingering survival skills. I either have food or I don't. I kill the beast and eat it or it kills and eats me.
One of the things that I learned in a management skills class many years ago, is how rare it is for anyone to be able to deal with deciding between more than 2 choices. And they had all sorts of studies and papers (with circles and lines and arrows on them...:)) showing this.
So, I suppose you could say that the human brain is wired to deal with an analog world by viewing it in binary, eg "either-or"...
(no subject)
In some sense, we still interpret the world in dichotomies based on our lingering survival skills. I either have food or I don't. I kill the beast and eat it or it kills and eats me.
One of the things that I learned in a management skills class many years ago, is how rare it is for anyone to be able to deal with deciding between more than 2 choices. And they had all sorts of studies and papers (with circles and lines and arrows on them...:)) showing this.
So, I suppose you could say that the human brain is wired to deal with an analog world by viewing it in binary, eg "either-or"...