“Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony”. –Heraclitus

          Heraclitus was a late 6th century BCE philosopher who lived in Ephesus, on the coast of present day Turkey. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that his life was not well documented, only assumptions can be made from his writings. It is has been said that Heraclitus passed on a kingly title to his brother. One of his most strong beliefs was “The Unity of Opposites”. He believed that the universe is ever-changing and that everything has an opposite, creating a perfect balance in the world. For example there is no death without life, or sadness without happiness. Heraclitus had very strong opinions about his fellow philosophers, for his opinions broke apart from the norm. When I first read the quote, I thought of how with every disagreement there is an agreement. This goes along with Heraclitus’ view that for true harmony in the world, there has to be a balance with everything. A personal experience I have had relating to this quote is when I had to do a group project that was a major part of our grade. There were some people in my group who had ideas that conflicted with my own. However, we found a way to use peices of each idea to create one that we mutually agreed on. In the end, we all recieved A's on the project.

 

Works Cited

"Heraclitus." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Metaphysics Research Lab, 23 June

          2015. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heraclitus/>.