When one asks for peace and happiness isn't one also asking for turmoil and sorrow?

Question

for the one does not exist without its opposite. There is no day without night, there is no high without low and so on and so forth.

There are no absolutes in this life.

Answer 1

Those are all very nice platitudes and sayings, but they are hardly true.

Take for example, love. The opposite of love is widely regarded as being fear. Love exists independently of fear. No one is made more fearful by an increase of love elsewhere. Furthermore, no one will ever have difficulty recognizing love, even if its opposite were completely eliminated.

Furthermore, if you go and say something ridiculous and base it off of a hard absolute implied by a tired, meaningless aphorism, isn't it a bit counter-productive to go on and say that "there are no absolutes in this life"?

Answer 2

when someone asks for peace and happiness there is probably just the opposite at that particular moment.

Answer 3

I'm not sure that I agree with your opinion.

   I don't need to have experienced a visit by the Tonton macoute to appreciate the fact that I have certain freedoms.

    To say that something only exists if it has an opposite is false. An opposite can help define something, but isn't required to prove it's existance.

Answer 4

Oy vey, I demand a logical positivist! Lol...  Seriously though, it all depends on the definitions. If the terms are not agreed upon, then we cannot communicate our ideas. I am in agreement with Alan.

Answer 5

No; They are asking for something supernatural.

Answer 6

Peace, happiness, turmoil, and sorrow are such emotionally laden words that have such varied connotations to different people that it is impossible to come up with any universal rubric for how they would relate in all cases.

If you want to do philosophy you need to base your vocabulary on things that are consistent in meaning and use.  And the problem people run into with supposed opposites is that there can be disagreement with what is the opposite of such amorphous terms as peace, love, happiness, et al.  Using a metaphor of style, it is hard to make a fashion statement if you wear one size fits all socks as mittens.