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...

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…