“Doubles” and opposites: from archaics to dialectics (O.M. Freidenberg and Plato)

Abstract

The article juxtaposes the views of O.M. Freidenberg on the archaic thought, with its “duality”, and the concept of opposites and “reflections” in Plato. Freidenberg believes that this unification of opposites is an unconscious relic of the archaics in Plato. I examine Plato’s views in the context of his disputes with the Sophists and Eleats, trying to show that he actually comes to the idea of interacting and coexistent opposites that are also “images” of each other. This idea appears to be similar to archaic ideas about opposing doubles, but it is based on the reflection of thought and speech and on the concept of the “other”, representing a totally new region for the Greeks, the dialectics.