On the Unity of Opposites in Heraclitus

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The conception of the unity of opposites in Heraclitus may be taken to be a transgression of the law of contradiction, if it is interpreted literally. Some interpreters, therefore, try to recognize that the "unity" means not so much the "identity" as some "connexion" of the opposites. However, this interpretation, which aims to reconcile Heraclitus' thought with logic anachronistically, is nothing but to rationalize it more than necessary and, as a result, to degrade his originality in this point improperly. It should be noted here that Hippolytus of Rome, who is, among others, an important and authoritative source of information on Presocratic philosophy and cites many fragments of Heraclitus referring to the unity of opposites in his Refutatio omnium haeresium, thinks of this unity not as only an association of different elements but as the absolute and objective identity. Hippolytus' interpretation is, we assume, not beside the mark at all. It is true that some of the examples with … More which Heraclitus illustrates the unity of opposites are taken from everyday life and are easily explained in terms of relativity without illogicalness. However, there are also some in which the unity is invisible and we cannot readily observe its existence; this unity is much more generalized so that it represents a latent structure or an objective pattern of the universe composed with all the pairs of opposites. Consequently, we should make a clear distinction between two levels of the unity of opposites in Heraclitus: that which is only a superficial phenomenon and, on the other hand, that which is objective and essential. It goes without saying that, for Heraclitus, it is the latter that is decisively important for the understanding of the nature of the universe. This is the dynamic unicity in which the opposites, opposing with one another, realize a cosmic adjustment or harmony between themselves at the same time. The assertion of the unity of opposites seems very illogical to us, but, in the eyes of Heraclitus, such a paradoxical way the universe subsists shows certainly the cosmic reality. Less