once again we struggle with opposites (what's the opposite of minority). Aristotle discussed the logical aspects of opposites.

There are said, in the book of Categories, to be four kinds of opposites. Relative opposites are relate and correlate of a disquiparant relation [e.g., husband and wife]. Contrary opposites are the most unlike species of the same genus, as black and white, sickness and health. The third kind of opposition is between a habit and its privation, as sight and blindness. The fourth kind is between affirmation and negation. This passage has prevented the word opposite from taking any definite meaning in philosophy. - Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology [EA]

-joe (pedantry 'R us) friday

aside: presumptive wwftd - disquiparant

Spatial opposites?

I like Disquiparant!

That's one problem less. Opposite is quite useful in daily life.
But it's a funny word. The opposite of hot is cold, the opposite of hard is soft, the opposite of wood does not work. Nor does the opposite of tablecloth.
It's a nonsubstantial word. (as far as I can see)

the relative opposite of wood could be plastic..
-joe (contrarian) friday

Good, that one is worth thinking about. What do you suggest for tablecloth?

Lace or cotton??? (yuk, yuk)

They might do as relative opposites, but ...

placemat

uh...clever, clever. ( in a way)

or maybe, lap?

You'll never be the philosopher. Sigh.

when I host our monthly poker game, we take off the tablecloth and use the underlying table pad as our playing surface. it prevents damage to the wood and provides a nice sliding surface for cards and coins. there, a relative opposite for tablecloth.

on a related note, the relative opposite of Faldage's findom is findal, about which..

findal obs. a. Invention. b. That which is found (cf. Da. findelse)

(oh drat.. should have saved that for hogwash®)

should have saved that for hogwash®) Nah; too close: an invention is something that is found.

Re: your opening post -- couldn't there be some instances where the second and fourth kinds are one and the same? Ex:
Q: Do you like corn?
A1: No, I hate corn.
A2: Yes, I like corn.

If that's not a good example, are there better ones?

now, now, there's no reason to insult me!

:¬ )

Ahwell, Socrates wasn't handsome and he could not sing.

What?! I would say it's just the opposite.

This site on "opposites" seems like a good place to ask:
a poster on another site asks:
"I'm looking for the word that means the part of the object
which is the same shape, only in miniature. Or conversely,the larger object giving off miniature shapes of itself."
Anyone got any idea what this person is looking for?? What word?

actually, I would start a new thread.

but maybe something about fractal, or recursion, or another word that isn't coming to me at the moment...

Enlargement or diminution , would that not be enough? They are opposites but don't ask me in which category. I guess relative again.

self-referential?

Sorry, I underestimated you. This must be philosophy.

This must be philosophy. No, no--that song's over in the other thread!

I've been thinking about this fourth kind: affirmation and negation. I think what's meant is, e.g., concepts like hot/cold and light/dark -- cold is not hot (the absence of heat); dark is not light (the absence of light). but that seems to apply only to absolutes, and breaks down in those gray areas (see love/hate).

of course, being it's philosophy this is about, some really strange ideas were developed: everything, however small, contains portions of all opposites - snow is black (in part)*. Plato (read, Socrates) said that all things which have opposites are generated out of their opposites, and concluded that "the living spring from the dead." [see the Phaedo]

*this must explain why fresh snow gets 'dirty' so quickly.

Snow is black (in part) generally because of atmospheric pollutants.

In the very early 1960s when I was stationed at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo-ken, we had a pink snow. The volcano Asama-yama was active and its ash was pink.

On the other hand, the snow that is lying on the ground in my back yard right now is as white as is was when it fell three nights ago. Charlotte, NC had a late winter snow storm that dropped 4 to 9 inches on the area. It was preceded, however, by more than 24 hours of continuous rain which very effectively eliminated those atmospheric precipitates that might otherwise have been present. It would have been a good snow from which to make snow ice cream. And with air temperatures hovering in the 20s, it might still be.

>snow is black (in part)

this was Anaxagoras (I think) - I doubt that he considered pollutants. my aside about dirty snow was a sarcasm; my bad for not so labeling it.

"Thus Anaxagoras distrusted the senses, and gave the preference to the conclusions of reflection. Thus he maintained that there must be blackness as well as whiteness in snow; how otherwise could it be turned into dark water?"

Dark water?

Which is why the white of the yang has a black (yin) spot in it and the black of the yin has a white (yang) spot.

just so long as the snow isn't yellow

the opposite of tablecloth

Table?

Dark water?

Douglas < Scottish Gaelic dubh 'dark' + glas 'water'. Not to be confused with heavy water. (Cf. the Atalntic with the Mediterranean.)