Final answer:
In ancient philosophy, light was often equated with existence and knowledge, while darkness symbolized non-existence or ignorance. This parallels early scientific theories of light where thinkers like Ibn al-Haytham laid foundational work for understanding vision and optics, leading to later developments in light theory such as Newton's corpuscular theory and Huygens' wave theory.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept that light represents existence (or essence) and darkness signifies non-existence in ancient philosophical thought is rooted in the metaphorical use of light and darkness as well as early scientific understandings of light. Ancient Greek philosophers and thinkers like Pythagoras and Parmenides often associated light with truth, knowledge, and the unchanging aspects of reality, while darkness was linked to ignorance or the constantly changing material world. This symbolism carried into various philosophical systems such as Neoplatonism, where light was a central divine principle representing the emanation of the One, and in al-Suhrawardi's Illuminationism, light served as the fundamental reality. Additionally, early scientific theory from figures like Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) contributed to our understanding of light in a physical sense, laying foundational work for later theories of vision and optics, where light was seen as travelling in straight lines and interacting with the human eye to create images.
Throughout history, the study of light evolved, from ancient Greek observations of ray behavior, reflection, and refraction, to the 17th-century arguments between Newton's corpuscular theory of light and Huygens' wave theory. These theories were eventually reconciled in modern physics with the concept of wave-particle duality, which recognizes that light exhibits properties of both waves and particles. The metaphorical use of light and darkness in philosophy and religion often paralleled these scientific understandings, sometimes conflating literal and figurative interpretations.