XXIII World Congress of Philosophy, Athens 2013
Comparative and intercultural philosophy
The Harmonization of Opposites
Yannis Fikas, Ph.D.
Director of Recruitment Development,
New York College, Athens
Email: yfikas@nyc.gr
http://www.nyc.gr/
The theory of the harmonization of opposites as reflected in Western and Eastern
philosophy is presented in this paper. Initially, the theory of the harmonization of opposites is
found in the philosophical views of the Presocratic philosophers, Plato, the Neoplatonic
philosophers, the Renaissance philosophers as well as in contemporary philosophers. Then the
paper focuses on the Eastern philosophy and mainly on those schools of philosophy that
harmonize antitheses such as the schools of Buddhism, Samkhya, Yoga and Uttara Mimamsa.
Keywords: armory, opposites, middle way, liberation
The Harmonization of Opposites
As it is known in Greek mythology, the beautiful goddess Harmonia (Αρμονία) is the
daughter of Ares -the god of war- and Aphrodite. Harmonia is the deity who connects and
harmonizes the opposites. She is a new Aphrodite. Her husband was Cadmus, who founded
the Greek city of Thebes1.
According to the theory of the harmonization of opposites, there are two primal
cosmic energies, two poles which are opposite but complementary to each other and which
are both manifestations of the one and only reality. It is from these pairs of opposites that all
world manifestations spring. Such examples are Day and Night in Heraclitus philosophic
theory, Justice and Injustice in Anaximander, Finite and Infinite in Pythagoras, Light and
Dark in Parmenides, Love and Strife in Empedocles.
Anaximander was the first one to emphasize the concept of the two opposite natural
properties - hot and cold. He believed that within every element its opposite is hatched and
that the whole world is in a perpetual rhythmic evolution2.
Anaximenes believed that these primal cosmogenic substances of Anaximander, hot
and cold, which coexist and come from air’s rarefaction and condensation, are very important.
In Anaximenes cosmogony, ‘rarefied’ and ‘condensed’ acquired special importance since
every change is brought about through the interaction of these two opposites3.
For Heraclitus, opposites appear to be in accordance with each other more than the
similar elements are. Heraclitus believed that god is day and night, winter and summer, war
and peace, surfeit and hunger. The well-known quote of Heraclitus ‘War is the father of us
all’ implies the primary role of the harmonization of opposites in cosmogony4. The war of
gods, which is so apparent in the Eastern and Western traditional religions and the cosmogony
of Orpheus and Hesiod, is expressed in Heraclitus as well, through his philosophic perception
of the harmonization of opposites.
1
Kerenyi, K., Η Μυθολογία των Ελλήνων, Athens, Εστία, 1966, pp. 80,281.
2
Kirk G.S. - Raven J.E. - Schofield M., Oι Προσωκρατικοί φιλόσοφοι, μτφρ. Δ. Κούρτοβικ, Athens, Μορφωτικό
Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέζης, 1988, pp..128-129.
3
Kirk G.S. - Raven J.E. - Schofield M., Oι Προσωκρατικοί φιλόσοφοι, μτφρ. Δ. Κούρτοβικ, Athens, Μορφωτικό
Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέζης, 1988, p. 153.
4 Kirk G.S. - Raven J.E. - Schofield M., Oι Προσωκρατικοί φιλόσοφοι, μτφρ. Δ. Κούρτοβικ, Athens, Μορφωτικό
Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέζης, 1988, pp.. 196-201.
Anaxagoras claimed that some of the opposites, such as sweet and bitter, light and
dark, are ingredients of seeds (spermata) and every seed acquires the quality attributes of that
element, which the seed contains to a greater proportion5.
Socrates harmonized logic with inspiration. The concept of measure in the Socratic
dialectic method of inquiry expresses the characteristics of god Apollo, the god of inner and
outer beauty, while inspiration and humor express the characteristics of Dionysus, the god of
renaissance and renewal. Socrates also combined bravery and courage, characteristics of the
god Ares, with ingenuity and guile, characteristics of the god Hermes, who was the god of
knowledge, eloquence and wisdom6.
Plato believed that nature was the one that placed pleasure and sadness, happiness
and pain, life and death in admirable harmony. The Symposium and Phaedrus by Plato
celebrate life, while Phaedo is the dialogue in which Plato addresses the issue of death7. For
Plato there is a road that leads from life to death and another opposite one that leads a human
from death to life; or, as Heraclitus mentions, the same path leads upwards and downwards.
This course from life to death is philosophically associated with the death of senses, which is
a prerequisite for real life because it connects humans with the divine world and eventually
helps them harmonize the spiritual world with the sensory one.
For Plotinus, the human soul harmonizes the two opposing forces that define it,
meaning its attraction towards the natural world and the one towards the intelligible world;
because despite the descent of the soul to the body, the soul is reminiscent of the beauty of the
intelligible world8.
Ramon Lull, the sage of Majorca city, reckoned that there was a superior sphere, the
one above the heavens. There the contradictions of the lower world spheres, meaning the
spheres of minerals, plants, animals and humans, are lifted9.
The Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno believed that harmony appears
wherever there are opposites. In his work The expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, he mentions
typical examples which verify this theory. “Thereby work pleases us only after rest and rest
5 Kirk G.S. - Raven J.E. - Schofield M., Oι Προσωκρατικοί φιλόσοφοι, μτφρ. Δ. Κούρτοβικ, Athens, Μορφωτικό
Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τραπέζης, 1988, pp.. 377-379.
6 Schwarz, F., La voie du bonheur, La philosophie vivante de Socrate, Auxerre, 3 Monts, Paris, 1999, pp. 83-84.
7 Theodorakopoulou I., Εισαγωγή στον Πλάτωνα, Αthens, 1970, pp. 267-271.
8
Pelegrinis, T., Νεοπλατωνισμός, Athens, Ellinika Grammata, 2003, p. 61.
9
Yates, Fr., The art of memory, The University of Chicago Press, 1966, pp.179-183.
pleases us only after work. People who live in the countryside desire to go to the city and
those who live in cities desire to go to the countryside for rest and holidays. Walking satisfies
the person who rested and the one who has walked a lot finds rest relieving. Thus, the
transition from the one extreme to the other, this motion through intermediary situations is
what pleases us more. The person who wants to overcome a great obstacle which is in front of
him should take several steps backwards” 10.
Bruno used opposite pairs in his work The Ash Wednesday Supper as well, to convey
the duality of human nature: grand and small, cheerful and angry, bitter and happy, tragic
and comical, heroic and dejected, teacher and student, believer and unbeliever, facile and
ponderous, cringing and liberal, apish and dignified, a sophist with Aristotle, a philosopher
with Pythagoras, smiling with Democritus, crying with Heraclitus11.
The harmonization of strength with wisdom is represented symbolically by Bruno in
his work On the Composition of Images, Signs and Ideas with the figure of a man who is
holding in his right hand a scepter and in his left a book, which symbolize strength and
wisdom respectively12.
This harmonization of strength with wisdom is represented symbolically as well, by
Paolo Veronese in his painting Allegory of Strength and Wisdom. In this painting, strength is
depicted as Hercules who has his eyes turned to the earthly world and wisdom is depicted as a
woman with her eyes turned to the celestial and spiritual world.
The harmonization of the earthly world with the celestial one is portrayed in a
symbolic manner in the painting Primavera (Allegory of Spring) by Sandro Botticelli. To the
right of the painting, the earthly elements prevail with the presence of Zephyrus, the nymph
Chloris and Flora who is the mother of flowers. Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of beauty,
life and plethora, presides over the garden in the central axis of the painting; whereas, the
three Graces are placed between Aphrodite and Hermes who defines the passage from the
earthly world to the celestial one and heralds the coming of spiritual spring and felicity.
Nietzche considered the harmonization of the two opposing forces expressed through
the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy to be the real ideal of ancient Greeks. Apollo, the
god of light, harmony, beauty, music and poetry, represents equanimity and individuality,
10 Bruno, G., The expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, Α. Imerti, University of Nebraska Press, 1992, pp.89-90.
11 Bruno, G., The Ash Wednesday Supper, S. L. Jaki, The Hague, Mouton, 1975, pp. 43-44.
12
Bruno, G., On the Compositions of Images Signs and Ideas,. Tr. Ch. Doria, D. Higgins, New York, Willis,
Locker & Owens, 1991, p.92.
while Dionysus, the god of inspiration and ecstasy, represents the revival of humans and
reconciliation with one’s fellow human beings13.
All this world that we see, hear, and touch is that accessible to the human senses, a
condensation of the two enormous powers of the Universe permeated with all of God. One
power descends and wants to scatter, to come to a standstill, to die. The other power ascends
and strives for freedom, for immortality. These two armies, the dark and the light, the armies
of life and of death, collide eternally. The visible signs of this collision are, for us, plants,
animals, men14.
According to the Eastern philosophy, the whole world dilates and contracts (Pralaya
and Manvantara) in a process of cosmic breathing (Kriya), which is based on the harmony
coming from antitheses.
The school of Buddhism teaches that life of self-indulgence and that of selfmortification are both extreme and causeless situations for humans and that harmony is found
in the Middle Way which harmonizes antitheses.
Buddha himself had proclaimed the
philosophy of the Middle Way for over forty years until his death in 480 BC.
The school of Samkhya establishes the notions of Purusha, the spirit of the universe,
and Prakriti, the spiritual matter of the universe. Prakriti is composed of three essential
characteristics, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. It is from the influence of Purusha over Prakriti that
the universe is created and is manifested in twenty five distinct scales.
The school of Yoga is a system of self-discipline which comprises a combination of
mental and physical exercises as a means of applying Samkhya principles. Its founder is
Patanjali, who lived in the 2nd century BC. The exercise programme of Yoga includes eight
stages: The first four constitute Hatha Yoga, while the next four correspond to the realization
of the other types of Yoga: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Raja Yoga.
The school of Uttara Mimamsa, which construes Upanishad teaching, considers that
the spiritual substances of Purusha and Prakriti are not independent but manifestations of the
one and only substance of Brahman which is the ultimate truth15.
A similar theory of the spiritual substances of Purusha and Prakriti as manifestations
of Brahman was put forward in the 8th century BC by Sankara through the philosophy of non13
Nietzsche F., Η Γέννηση της Τραγωδίας, Athens, Γκοβόστης, pp..11-23.
14
Kazantzakis N., Α σ κ η τ ι κ ή , A t h e n s , 2 0 0 6 , p . 6 6 .
Fikas Y., Φιλοσοφία, ο Κόσμος, η Πόλη, ο Άνθρωπος, Athens, Νίκας, 2013.
15
duality called Advaita Vedanta. This system of thought harmonized moral philosophy with
epistemology. This harmonization led to seeking liberation not only through moral
obligations or knowledge but through both those paths. Through the first path the sacred
renunciation of all worldly activities is cultivated, which is an essential prerequisite for the
subjugation of egoistic urges (asanga), while the other path is necessary for the dissolution of
ignorance (avidya) through knowledge (vidya) and experiences of reality16.
Yin and Yang depicts the two polar principles within the universe, which represent
black and white, male and female, dark and light, stillness and motion (respectively). It
symbolizes the perpetual motion and rotation. In the Chinese philosophy the presence of this
symbol becomes apparent in the conflict between the female facet of the deity Kwan Yin Tien
and its complementary one, Kwan Shi Yin, as well as in the conflict between the Golden
Dragon, the sun, and the Silver Dragon, the moon17.
According to the theory of the harmonization of opposites, the human being who has
harmonized within his heart the opposite polar forces which are in a continuous struggle, who
has conquered his solar nature and harmonized it with the nightly one, who has reconciliated
his heavenly nature with the worldly one, is a complete, fully-realized being that reflects
within himself the creation of his wholeness. This human being is a human of action, who
harmonizes philosophy with art, logic with imagination, science with religion, individual
freedom with cosmic order.
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