Compresence of Opposites

CO Presence of Opposites The Copresence of Opposites in Socratic and Pre-Socratic Philosophy The early pre-Socratic philosopher Heracleitus maintained that the most significant manifestation of the logos of human thought was the underlying connection between apparent opposites, known as the copresence of opposites. Heracleitus stated that the limited nature of human consciousness on earth caused human beings to see divisions where there were, at objects' most elemental natures no such division in these objects' essential substances.

The scientific materialist philosopher Democritus later adopted this philosophy into his idea of atomic materialism. He stated that all material substances are composed of the same basic material essence. He argued that the world consisted of an infinite number of atoms, all moving in an infinite void. These atoms were invisible and indivisible particles of matter that were ungenerated and indestructible. They differed from one another in size, shape, and position, thus causing the appearance of difference or opposition to the human eye.

Each thing that appeared different to the human eye, however, simply reflected the limited nature of human perception. Thus, rather than stressing the limited spiritual nature of human perception as did Heracleitus, Democritus saw such limits in a physical sense, namely that the human eye is not equipped to perceive things at an atomic level, and is more equipped to see the differences between objects the object's atomic properties of difference, rather than the essential sameness of atomic properties.

Man is the measure of all things," the Sophist Protagorist would contradict both pre-Socratic philosophers. Namely, there is no truth outside of human perception and consciousness. If human beings perceive difference between forms, then there is a difference -- in the earthly sphere for the Sophist, what can be established with the human tongue of discourse is more important than truth. Not so, of course, for Plato.

True, of course, the world in which we dwell on earth is but an imperfect reflection, like shadows on the wall of the cave -- shadows of.