Reducing to black and white.

[Gray]

Hi,

I just came across this:

"I believe that in the first book of Metaphysics Aristotle had all this passage in his mind and was playing his usual game of reducing to black and white what Plato left glowing with iridescent fire."

Could someone please let me know what does 'reducing to black and white' mean here? Does it mean 'to write'?

One more question, can we derive new phrases or meanings if the context requires it or makes it more artistic?

~Gray
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I love words, sounds envy me.
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First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English

[Jamie (K)]

"Reducing to black and white" means to take something that's very complicated and nuanced and make it simpler.

Sometimes this expression is used positively, as when someone takes something that is needlessly complex and makes it easier to understand.

Sometimes it is meant negatively, as when someone oversimplifies something that was necessarily complex.