Opposites

I'm the midst of winter I found within me an invincible summer.
-- Camus

The tragedy of the opposites surprised many a philosopher. Everything around us has an opposite, a negation that seems to complete the existence of the original. Without heat there is no cold, without darkness there is no light, without death there is no life. The universe is filled with these pairs of opposing states. Universe as it exists today can be defined as the existence of and the interplay between the opposites.

The seeming opposite entities are so closely connected, it's very easy to think of them as the same. One cannot imaging success without going through defeats. One cannot imagine feeling joy without going through the sorrow. This dialectic of the opposites is what produces the enormously complex and rich philosophical landscape within human mind. It has confused so many, that some came to believe in the existence of dualism and the rest came to believe the opposite, non-dualism, or the belief that all is one.

Of all the opposites, being and non-being is of the most profound significance. Plato thought we are born with certain knowledge of some, including the existence of being. We may be the only organisms who can feel the existence of non-being, non-existence of anything.