Why is Incest Wrong?: An introduction to Duality

Haidt et al. introduced the concept of “moral dumbfounding”. When asked about the morality of consensual incest using contraceptives, most participants of his psychological experiment categorised the act as wrong. This essay aims to explain why they and society consider incest, even consensual, “wrong”. By expanding Aristotle’s idea of potentiality and actuality, I propose the concept of duality based on similarity and differentiation in humans. I explain outward societal formation as a form of duality in human relations. Thus, I argue that incest makes the act of expansion done for maintaining duality, into one against it.