"Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence." (Blake, 1793) Please discuss.

[IFerrier]

[Abdourahman John]

The quote above by Blake is very significant because it deals with human society as a whole and questions how it came to grow. Blake believes that if there were not things that contradict one another then no progression would of been made in our history. With Blake I agree, for the simple reason that without one how could we know the other. For example good and bad, if we lived in a world where there was only good, this means there would be no bad, but we could not be proud of doing only good because we cannot do bad because we dont know what it is, and vice versa. if we lived in a world where we did only bad, we could not be punished for doing bad because we dont know what is good. I believe the contraries are what enable us to form ourselves as people, throughout our lives we are continuously making choices, but we make a choice between one thing or another and then experience the consequence of our choice. Without the contraires human existence would not be possible.

On Wednesday, November 7, 2012 3:26:43 PM UTC+1, IFerrier wrote:

[Vicky Ricci]

As Abdou said, no progression would have been made in history if it weren't for contraries.To be able to distinguish between good and bad, we need to know both sides of life.If everything were perfect then there would be no need to create and make progress. However, if everything were bad we wouldn't be able to distinguish it from anything else as we have nothing to compare it with. What William Blake is saying is that, knowing how to distinguish good and bad we are constantly progressing as a world and as humans. "Love and hate, are necessary to human existence" Blake provides us with examples of human nature. Love would only feel good if you have already experienced how hate feels. If love was only felt then, it would be considered normal and not as special. Blake explains the importance of the role in which contraries play to make life worth living, appreciating both the good and the bad.

[Matej Vucak]

Why is it that everyone assumes that a world without contraries is a world where only one of two extremes exists? It's either good or evil, love and hate, order or chaos but never anything in between or anything that works quite differently. For example, heat. Unlike good and evil, cold is not the opposite of heat, it is the absence of it.

 In the same way, a system could exist that is determined not by two opposites but by the degree of presence of a certain factor.You cannot simply declare that humanity wouldn't exist without contraries because you've only know a life dictated by contraries: you don't know what life without contraries is.

A world without evil could exist but that does not mean it would be a world of good and good only. You could have love and you could also have a lack of love or a smaller degree of love (friendship, caring) with the absence of evil. Love doesn't feel good because hate feels bad and hate is not the absence of love. One can exist without the other and still influence us so long as its absence is felt. That is why I disagree with Blake.

On another note, why does Blake hold Reason and Energy to be opposites of each other?

  

[Cole Cabibbo]

Blake is essentially saying that emotions, and strong ones at that, are the quintessence of human existence, because as we have learned in ToK; we are hardwired for emotion, and I believe that it dictates the swing of our everyday life. A few years ago, a study was conducted in which people were made to have no emotion and then were put in a normal domociliary ambient and then went on to lead their lives. The study showed that emotion is the fabric that puts importance and hence priority on a task.

[Amir.F]

Well, in my opinion what Blake is saying is right. Lets look at this from the ART and or photographic point of view if in a black and white drawing or picture there is no contrast between white and black then the picture or the drawing is not seen and understood by the observer. What I mean is that for black to show itself a white back ground is needed in this case and vice versa otherwise if there is only white and only black then there is no drawing or picture. Meaning that different colour contrasts should exist in order for other colours to manifest themselves. In this case what Blake is saying I think is the same. Meaning that if there is no hate then love can't manifest itself and vice versa and so on. 

[Ludo]

As everyone has stated already, progression would not exist, if contraries were not made. This quotation is very powerful because it is stating all the essentia characteristics one needs in life to progress and for human existence. Human existence is made up of emotion such as hate and love and the other characteristics stated in the quotation. For progression, Blake is saying that we need contraries which are the bad and the good. The bad sides to the characaterisits stated above help one grow, and helps their human existence.

[IFerrier]

Hi, 

If you are interested, please have a look at Blake's philosophy. Blake touches on the question whether body and soul are separated or one. http://inhumandecency.org/christine/blake.html

[Arafat Hasnain]

The eternal conflict between opposing thoughts or emotions is responsible for mankind to progress as a species. But what Blake refers to can be considered to a certain extent ambiguous. There is no doubt that disagreement and a clash of ideas can lead to a conclusion which satisfies all sides. However, contraries does not necessarily mean progression. A good example would be wars which generally starts from opposing ideologies on foreign policy. So then are the casualties needed for progression? In other words, there can be progression without contraries. 

In response to Matej's inquiry, reason according to Blake could refer to someone who is rational but hesitant to take risky decisions which would mean that the person is cautious about life. While an energetic person is more likely to take those risky decisions which might end up to beneficial. 

[Giorgio Musilli]

Contraries exist because of our need to generalize and simplify. The lack of time and interest or need of efficiency pushes us to define and describe something or somebody by using contraries. Also the fact that we tend tend to defend ourselves and the social group we are in creates bias. We consequently consider others opposite us or use extreme words to define them. The negative aspect of this is that we do not analyze deeply, we do not critize deeply and we do not search for a more adequate understanding of an entity that is not merely considered an extreme or an opposite.

We could consider evil to be the absence of good. Can this imply that a world without evil could exist? If yes than a world completely filled with good would exist. But then how would a degree of good be meausured? We can't know the degree of good necessary to fill the absence of good. Consequently we can't understand or compare good with the absence of good becuase this absence is unfillable. I think that the existence of opposites lies within human nature and in our ability to choose. We also tend to generalize the outcomes of our choices with extremes, or opposites.

But I the power of a word expressing an extreme, or an opposite is beautifull. Simply by saying I love you does a person express a thousand words and emotions as well as negating i hate you from the relationship.

[Dennis Zinzi]

The quote represents an undeniable truth as every action has a consequence, and when you are confronted with to answers the two answers tend to be complete opposite to one another, yes or no. For one to exist, so does the other one, and if one were to be removed the other word would lose its meaning and become inexistent over time. This is not only true for one case as it can be applied to many other instances. A far different example would be the concepts of life and death. For death to occur some sort of life must be existent, or else its concept wouldn't and couldn't exist, and for the reason that death is present more life sprouts in order to compensate for loses caused by death. Through the use of an opposite one creates its opposite, as if one is met the one one can't be, and that leads to two separate statements which convey the same truth in the different manners. This simultaneous existence of two complete opposite messages causes the advance in human existence.

[Chianyul]

I agree with English poet William Blake to an extent. While I believe without contraries is no progression, I do not think that contraries are necessary to human existence as he says it in 1793, but rather, contraries are necessary to human development and advancement. Contraries, or disagreement aid the pursuit of knowledge. Many people believe that there is only answer to every problem. Therefore, a clash of two contrasting ideas tends to lead to more doubt. Doubt leads to experimentation and that leads to discoveries and findings that support the arguments. During this process, the society progresses with the emerges of innovative ideas.