In a recent article on Nietzsche, Eva Cybulska (Philosophy Now, Sept-Oct) observes Nietzsche’s debt to Heraclitus’ concept of the coincidence of opposites, often dubbed “the unity of opposites”. Cybulska explains that it was Heraclitus’ belief that all things were characterised by pairs of contrary properties. So, for example, one and the same thing may be both hot and cold.
Before Heraclitus Anaximander had argued there is a continual war of opposites. Heraclitus believed the universe was controlled by one divine law, the Logos. Heraclitus presented a paradox. The universe is constantly changing and yet remains the same. That is, while an object might move from point A to point B, thus involving change, the underlying law remains constant.
Heraclitus famously stated: “The path up and down is one and the same.” He also said, “Cold things grow hot, a hot thing cold, a moist thing withers, a parched thing is wetted.”
The fundamental assumption involved in Heraclitus’ belief and in all dialectics is that the existence or identity of any thing or any situation depends on at least two opposing conditions co-existing and in tension with each other, while ever depending on and presupposing each other. The Taoist notion of yin and yang is an example of this.
Nietzsche, like Anaximander, believed that existence fundamentally involved a battle of opposites. It was this conflict that generated immense energy, leading to “ever more powerful births.”
Here we have an immense gulf between Nietzsche’s thought and biblical theology. In the Bible creation is the rejection of chaos, the conquest of chaos. Descent back into chaos is effectively uncreation, as the Flood Narrative of Genesis makes clear. By contrast, Nietzsche embraces chaos and replaces God with Chaos. In the Bible God is the Creator. For Nietzsche Chaos is the creator.
Posted October 30, 2011
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