The Table of Opposites ( el, συστοιχία ''sustoichia'')
[Barry Sandywell, ''Presocratic Reflexivity: The Construction of Philosophical Discourse c. 600-450 B.C.: Logological Investigations: Volume Three'', Routledge, 2002, p. 206.] of
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...
is the oldest surviving of many such tables propounded by philosophers.
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
is the main source of our knowledge of the Pythagorean table.
Here follows a rough translation of the Table of Opposites, although like all translations the precise meaning does not necessarily carry over from the original Greek. For example, "crooked" has connotations in English that it may lack in the original.
* finite, infinite
* odd, even
* one, many
* male, female
* right, left
* rest, motion
* straight, crooked
*
light, darkness
*
good, evil
* square, oblong ''(one of these two, could be: ROUND or OVAL (because every square is oblong))''
Of these ten opposites, many philosophers have seized on the third pair as one of the most profound questions in philosophy, like "Is the universe one? Then how is it diverse? Is the universe many? Then how is it unified?" This has historically been known as the
problem of the one and the many, about which no small amount of ink has been spilled.
See also
*
Systole and Diastole
*
Pythagoreanism
Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the ancient Greek colony of Kroton, ...
References
Pythagorean philosophy
Dichotomies
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