Also Aristotle (384-322 BC) talks about opposites in his book on Physics. All understanding and knowing in every field of study depends on knowing the first principles (arche) and causes (aitia). He points out that all former philosophers make first principles out of contrary opposites. They can not be derived from each other or anything else, and everything is to be derived from them.

Aristotle broadens this archaic view of opposites his first book on physics by saying :

”If there exists anything divine, good and worthy of achieving, we say that there also exists a contrary opposite to this, and also that which wants and wills this opposite according to its nature.”

When Goethe says that prismatic colors appear as a result of the interaction between light and darkness, we need not go any further to see that natural science in ancient Greece and its philosophy is the place to look for – which of course, most propably, owed its ideas to even more ancient peoples and cultures.