Does light contradict dark?

Question

....light/dark, or anything in life, for that matter.

does night contradict day..or do they compliment each other?

Where does one end and the other begin?

Answer 1

I reckon light and dark are merely tonal opposites. So they enhance each other, as awareness of death can enhance life. There are many kinds of both dark and light. Anyway, to enhance the apparent light in a painting etc, one darkens the darks (See Rembrandt) -- but there is always some colour in shadows. Some inherent, some reflected, and some projected. The tonal shift, and the colour in the light, is seen most clearly at the gradation from light to shadow; and it's never abrupt. It can be extremely beautiful, if one looks.

Answer 2

I believe they compliment one another, because without one or the other, there would be no appreciation for what the other was. If seen as a contradiction, you are implying denial and asserting the contrariness of the other, when clearly the other exists. Rather than an ending or a beginning to one or the other, I believe it is a blending of the two. The daylight for instance, slowly becomes nightime, and when the morning comes, the darkness has slowly become the day. The depth of the darkness itself, as with the full illumination of the day, is a reminder, in and of itself, that the power of each is great. Yet, it must not be forgotten that there is no infinite value of one or the other ALONE, without the appreciation of both as a WHOLE...days come and go equally as do the nights and the night surely brings the day. They are not incompatible, nor do they contradict, for each brings the other.

Answer 3

None of these supposed dualisms actually exists. All are part of one, and are shown in relative gradations. Night and day are both alike. Where one begins and the other ends are merely divisions we posit to mark the passage of time, one of the categories of our consciousness. The Bible puts it this way, "Evening came and morning came, the first day." "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never comprehended it". Or as Helen Keller said, "It is better to light a single candle, than to curse the darkness."

Answer 4

The simplest answer is no, it doesn't. ^_^

"Dark" is a word we use to describe the absence of light. Linguists call it a "privative" because it describes something that isn't a real thing in and of itself, and that only exists courtesy of things that are *missing*. Dark is what happens when you are *deprived of light*. Cold is what happens when you are *deprived of heat*. And so on.

As for that last question, "Where does one end and the other begin?" this is where you start to show signs of a clue here.

Because in truth, the world is not bipolar, black-and-white. Things exist on a continuum (shades of grey, degrees on a thermometer), and they also can show three or more overlapping properties (like *colors*, or the spatial dimensions of height, width and depth).

In short, life is complicated. Consider for a moment the classical symbol of Duality in Asian cultures: The Yin and Yang.

People who see the obvious will note that there is always a bit of Yin in the Yang, and a bit of Yang in the Yin.

But people who really see the *big picture* will notice it isn't about the separation of opposites, but rather the fact that those opposing members are together, and that together *they form a circle*. Rather like the way our Earth needs both day and night cycles to balance out temperatures and mix them up so that we can keep our air and oceans nice and friendly for all manner of *life*. ^_^ We have days, we have nights, and here *both* are needed to create and maintain a *bigger picture*--that things live here.

But it's all good. This is actually a pretty common error of judgement, the whole false dilemna thing or the division of things into paired opposites (and focusing just on that conflict). It's so common I think it may well have a neuro-chemical basis. Consider that some brain researchers at the link below:

http://www.sciam.com/

are actually rethinking how the brain works. They think that the brain is less of a computational system, and more of one massive "memory bank". In fact, they look at the brain as something that mainly processes and creates "memories" rather than anything computational.

And one of the things that backs this hypothesis up is the galvanic nature of neurons, which has been a proven thing at least since the Renaissance scientist Galvanni *discovered* nerve cells by making a frog's legs *jump* with electric current, no *frog* required. The short of it is: nerve cells behave less like computer chips--with their binary 1 and 0 states--and more like *batteries*, with three states--discharge, no charge, and recharge. Meaning, to keep it in maths terms, a nerve cell at a "no charge" or zero state can go two different ways, either recharging (the -1 state) or discharging (the 1 state).

So in terms of memory, we actually have three states to work with, but one of them, the no-charge, inactive state, doesn't *count* for thinking purposes....that state would represent the things we *don't* know or don't remember.

The 1, or discharge, state, would be related to things we are actively thinking about or trying to remember. The -1, or recharge, state, would be about things we are trying to forget, or things we haven't thought about, applied or used in a while. The privatives, or the "missing things" in other words.

But in the meantime, this means that while there's more information out there (Yin, Yang, *and circle*), we have a habit of only focusing in the stuff in our *active* states of 1 or minus 1. We have a trinary brain that committs binary errors courtesy of not knowing how to use the third, blank, "no charge" or inactive state. Or at least, that is commonly the case. It can be worked around. Some would argue that this is one of the *points* of Taoist thought, that you can get to the point to where you *live* your knowledge, executing it without really *having to* know or process it. Leaving the higher brain out of the picture because *you* already know what to do implicitly.

But to get there...you have to work past the dualities, and see the circles. ^_^

Hope this helps....thanks for your time!

Answer 5

Yin and yang / light and dark / night and day - one doesn't exist with out the other. And yet, they are not really discrete opposites with hard fast starting and stopping points. There are infinite degrees of gradation between both ends of any spectrum.

So yes, the contradict each other. And yes, they complement each other.

Answer 6

"Perceived" dualities are the Nemesis of the human condition. Your question isn't an 'either or." Nor is there a "beginning" or an "end" but a circle. All flows--all cyclical. Linear thinking is stifling, rigid & stagnant. I can imagine nothing more freeing, than to discover all is not black or white, as in--night/day neither contadict, or compliment each other.

Edit: Hey, Jamie, am I being "weird?" Or is it weird that you're not following me??? You could always "get in touch" if you'd like!

Answer 7

no...they're chasing each other...they compliment each other...they complete each other...they need each other...light shines brighter after a phase of darkness....you will not appreciate light if there was no dark..

the stillness of night seeks the vibrant energy of daytime...day chases the night....both together form a complete day..

i don't think they have defined boundaries...they can' be totally differentiated...one needs not end for the other to begin...they just sort of merge into each other...

there is no end..and there is no beginning....

Answer 8

Don't think it contradicts (as in speak against) more like compliments or contrasts. Many things are defined in terms of their opposites. As to where one ends and the other begins,.... that is where the mystery of life starts.........

Answer 9

Even the darkest of dark contains some light. It's just not perceivable to the human eye. Light and dark are the same thing.

Answer 10

Light is complimentary to dark. Without one, there is no other. Same goes for any other binary...we cannot know one unless we have some basis for comparison.
The second issue is harder--the liminal moments, the periods between, those are the ones that are harder to define...shades of gray always complicate things.