Originally Posted By: Jackie

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?


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.