what is the importance of the concept of opposition. it is majorly flawed: not everything has an opposite, there is not concrete way to find ones opposite and i frankly dont see the nessesity for it in the constrution of ones moral beliefs.
2006-11-02 12:19:19 · 7 answers · asked by warriorelite 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
The concept of opposites--blame it on Descartes, he's the founder of modern Philosophy. He argued that God exists and he is good; but what makes us be evil..? an evil genius/deceiver. That's how it all started (within modern philosophy).. Descartes is important for begininning this sort of thought process we call philosophy, with long and drawn out arguments based on posits, but his argument is not really considered sound. Back in his day, this sort of religious argument got heated debate back and forth; now we really don't care. I mean the atheists and chrisitians will argue, but who really cares deeply now? It doesn't carry the same gravity as it did then, because science was all not what it is now-it was untrustworthy with no real knowledge gained and alot of fluff.
So Descartes was trying to establish a scientific basis for knowledge and he needed to know that his thoughts were true and that he existed and that established a safe foundation for the rest of "knowledge"...that god exists, etc... all the way to a thinking architecture to base everything.
opposites is a nice way to understand concepts for simpler concepts for children, but not very useful in understanding complex concepts. The origin of the idea of opposites is really linguistic. It helped schematize ideas better and organize the understanding of the world more meaningfully (?) or simply. If you remember when you were a kid, how did you understand ideas such as light? you read dark as it's opposite and then you could more easily understand both terms better.
Well, not all things have opposites and that's all there is to it. Many realities lie on a spectrum. you have day (light) and then afternoon in between and semi-dark, then night (dark). Colors fall in a spectrum. Red to red-orange, orange, light orange, golden, yellow, yellow-green, green, green-blue, blue, etc...There is no opposite of orange. Is it un-orange? It doesn't make sense. There are some things without definite opposites.
See it's really evident that the idea of opposites stem from linguistics...with abstracted ideas. Abstractions from realities that can't really be seen in reality at all times are simply conceptualized in opposites, such as good and evil. cold and hot. big and small. wet/dry, benevolence/malevolence, etc There are many but these are simple examples. With more in depth studies, even some simple ideas can become complex because when you try to determine the criteria, you may include or exclude certain elements.
Well, anyway, just know that opposites help understand the world better, but is not reality itself.
2006-11-02 13:35:03 · answer #1 · answered by summation 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I disagree.
It's (opposites) very important not just for obvious reasons but to maintain balance in every other aspects in life.
If everything was similar, wouldn't the world as we know it become dull?
With opposites comes options.
With options we have/ develop judgment.
How else will equality exists?
2006-11-02 13:10:27 · answer #2 · answered by ViRg() 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This might not what you were looking for, but, to me, Opposite is totally necessary to balance the whole university. Like yin and yang.
I believe this world would be so peaceful when people started to realize that opposition is not good nor bad, just different.
2006-11-02 12:35:45 · answer #3 · answered by wonderwoman 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
everything is based on opposites: love and hate, war and peace, positive and negative. everything in life is on a scale between these opposites. If you can't find something's opposite, then you haven't well enough defined what it is you are searching.
2006-11-02 12:28:19 · answer #4 · answered by lowflyer1 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
AM may have a valid point, but the message may have been delivered with malice.
It brings to mind; what is the importance in similarity?
HOT/COLD does it matter?
TRUTH/DECEPTION does it matter?
QUESTION/ANSWER does it matter?
2006-11-02 12:31:41 · answer #5 · answered by ••Mott•• 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
opposites represent the extremes and encompass everything in between.
2006-11-02 12:37:22 · answer #6 · answered by lisa l 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
philisophically your question is pointless and unimportant
2006-11-02 12:23:25 · answer #7 · answered by am 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋