What are opposites?
Proceed with caution: This may be the most boring thing you
will ever read. You have been warned.
When I asked Google to define opposite for me, it came up
with this: Opposite (adj) Having a position on the other or further side of
something, (noun) a person or thing that is totally different from or the
reverse of someone or something else, (adverb) In a position facing a specified
or implied subject: “she was sitting opposite”, (preposition) In a position on
the other side of a specific area from; facing: “they sat opposite one another”.
That’s a very long definition.
But I ask you this. Do you consider light and dark
opposites? Is darkness simply not the absence of light? If so, then this
example would not fit into the above definition of an opposite. We could
consider day and night being opposites though, as this would fit with the idea
of an opposite being what happens on the ‘further side’ of something. Britain
is on one side of the world, Australia is on the other, and so the two have day
and night at different times. The fact that these times correlate (by that I
mean when Britain has day Australia has night and so on) is what makes day and
night opposite. Furthermore, day and
night have slightly differing features. Day has the sun and night has the moon
and stars, but they are essentially very similar in some ways. For example,
their features both occupy the entire sky at some point. We could also justify
them being opposites by saying that they happen on sides of the world which are
furthest apart. That is to say, if you were to dig a tunnel through the centre
of the earth in Britain and jump through it in midday, you would theoretically
end up in New Zealand in the exact middle of the night. So, not only does the
definition of the opposite as an adjective fit here, but of opposite as a
preposition too. This works in the same way that ‘they sat opposite one another’,
and are both opposites in the same manner. To apply it on a more mundane level,
this is the same as saying that I could be standing on one side of a twenty
foot high wall and a friend could be standing on the opposite side.
This of
course, applies with ten foot high walls as well.
Perhaps an even better example again would be a coin. We use
opposites here in an extraordinary way. We use them to decide things. A coin is
an example of opposites each with exactly the same chance of occurring. And so
we let opposites play a game of chance, and show us what to do. If I’m
hesitating regarding whether to have KFC or MacDonald’s for lunch, a flip of a
coin can solve my problem instantly (although regardless of outcome, I am
doomed to feel sick later on and re take my oath never to have junk food
again). But, even between the sides of a
coin, there is a little bit of distance. The ridge of a coin could perhaps be
what defines each side as the opposite. In the same way as the diameter of our
planet could be what defines the opposite between day and night. But no, surely
this is not the only thing. If it were, my bacon sandwich and I would be
opposites, as it is 1 foot or so away from me on the desk, and right now I
would be planning to eat my opposite. As looked at with day and night though,
even though they are opposites they have something in common. The sides of a
coin both have something in common, in that they are exactly that, two sides of
the same coin. They are also both engravings, both weigh the same and so on
(except of course, the notorious 3 sided coin, designed to settle trivial matters
after it was discovered rock paper scissors didn’t work three ways and was
really just people trying to be clever).
I could get into what seems to be the ultimate opposite
debate. Good and Evil. What is Good? What is Evil? I really don’t know, but I
suspect, just like day and night, that there are similarities. Anyway, I will
leave you with some of my favourite opposites
Day Night
Sun Moon
Dog Cat (Don’t even ask me why this seems to be
an opposite. Apparently you are only allowed to be a cat person or a dog
person, so I’m guessing they therefore must be opposites. After all, you can’t
flip a coin and get heads and tails at same time. Unless you have one of those
joke shop coins which land on their edge in which case I would like you to go
away).
Boxing Taekwondo
Happy Sad (No, sad is not just an absence of happiness.
You could not be happy and still not be sad. For example, I’m not particularly
happy with this article but I’m still sad enough to write it. It’s called being
indifferent. Interestingly though, the word ‘unhappy’ generally means you are
sad. I find that fascinating for some reason).
End Note: The Philosophy and Linguistics in here is tenuous at best, and therefore not really in aid of any serious debate. I just had to get this out of my head somewhere.
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