Influenced by the teachings of the Heraclitean Cratylus, Plato saw the sensible world as exemplifying a Heraclitean flux. Plato and Aristotle both criticized Heraclitus for a radical theory that led to a denial of the Law of Non-Contradiction.
Daniel W. Heraclitus fl. Life and Times Heraclitus lived in Ephesus, an important city on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, not far from Miletus, the birthplace of philosophy.
DK22B1 Most people sleep-walk through life, not understanding what is going on about them. What Heraclitus actually says is the following: On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow. But if we look closer, we see that the unity in question is not identity: As the same thing in us is living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old. DK22B88 The second sentence in B88 gives the explanation for the first.
Heraclitus observes, All things are an exchange for fire, and fire for all things, as goods for gold and gold for goods. DK22B90 We can measure all things against fire as a standard; there is an equivalence between all things and gold, but all things are not identical to gold.
He expresses the principles of his cosmology in a single sentence: This world-order, the same of all, no god nor man did create, but it ever was and is and will be: everliving fire, kindling in measures and being quenched in measures.
DK22B31a Sea is liquefied and measured into the same proportion as it had before it became earth. For Heraclitus, flux and opposition are necessary for life. DK22A22 Heraclitus views strife or conflict as maintaining the world: We must recognize that war is common and strife is justice, and all things happen according to strife and necessity.
DK22B80 War is the father of all and king of all, who manifested some as gods and some as men, who made some slaves and some freemen. DK22B53 In a tacit criticism of Anaximander, Heraclitus rejects the view that cosmic justice is designed to punish one opposite for its transgressions against another.
Heraclitus observes, The road up and down is one and the same. DK22B60 Here again we find a unity of opposites, but no contradiction. Moral and Political Theory There has been some debate as to whether Heraclitus is chiefly a philosopher of nature a view championed by G.
Heraclitus views the soul as fiery in nature: To souls it is death to become water, to water death to become earth, but from earth water is born, and from water soul. DK22B36 Soul is generated out of other substances just as fire is. But it has a limitless dimension: If you went in search of it, you would not find the boundaries of the soul, though you traveled every road-so deep is its measure [ logos ]. DK22B45 Drunkenness damages the soul by causing it to be moist, while a virtuous life keeps the soul dry and intelligent.
The laws of a city-state are an important principle of order: The people [of a city] should fight for their laws as they would for their city wall.
DK22B44 Speaking with sense we must rely on a common sense of all things, as a city relies on its wall, and much more reliably. DK22B The laws provide a defense for a city and its way of life. Heraclitus recognizes a divine unity behind the cosmos, one that is difficult to identify and perhaps impossible to separate from the processes of the cosmos: The wise, being one thing only, would and would not take the name of Zeus [or: Life].
DK22B32 God is day night, winter summer, war peace, satiety hunger, and it alters just as when it is mixed with incense is named according to the aroma of each. DK22B67 Evidently the world either is god, or is a manifestation of the activity of god, which is somehow to be identified with the underlying order of things.
Accomplishments and Influence Heraclitus goes beyond the natural philosophy of the other Ionian philosophers to make profound criticisms and develop far-reaching implications of those criticisms. References and Further Reading Barnes, Jonathan. The Presocratic Philosophers.
Graham, Daniel W. Defends Heraclitus against the traditional view held by Barnes and others, and argues that his theory can be understood as a coherent criticism of earlier Ionian philosophy. Hussey, Edward.
Schofield and M. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Kahn, Charles H. The Art and Thought of Heraclitus. An important reassessment of Heraclitus that recognizes the literary complexity of his language as a key to interpreting his message.
Focuses on Heraclitus as a philosopher of the human condition. Kirk, G. Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments. Focuses on Heraclitus as a natural philosopher. Marcovich, Miroslav. Heraclitus: Greek Text with a Short Commentary. Merida, Venezuela: U. A very thorough edition of Heraclitus, which effectively sorts out fragments from reports and reactions.
Mourelatos, Alexander P. Lee et al. Assen: Van Gorcum, Nussbaum, Martha C. Robinson, T. Heraclitus: Fragments. Toronto: U of Toronto P, Good brief edition with commentary. Vlastos, Gregory. Reprinted in G. Vlastos, Studies in Greek Philosophy, vol. Vigorous defense of the traditional interpretation of Heraclitus against Kirk and others. Aenesidemus interpreted Heraclitus as a kind of proto-skeptic see Polito Ever since Plato, Heraclitus has been seen as a philosopher of flux.
The challenge in interpreting the philosopher of Ephesus has always been to find a coherent theory in his paradoxical utterances. Since Hegel, he has been seen as a paradigmatic process philosopher—perhaps with some justification. The recently published Derveni Papyrus, discovered in a tomb in northern Greece, contains a commentary on an Orphic poem. See Betegh The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol. See Burkert Life and Work 2. Method 3. Philosophical Principles 3.
Cosmology 5. Knowledge 6. Value 7. Influence 8. Method Heraclitus made every effort to break out of the mold of contemporary thought. In any case he seems to regard himself not as the author of a philosophy so much as the spokesman for an independent truth: Having harkened not to me but to the Word Logos it is wise to agree that all things are one. B50 Heraclitus stresses that the message is not his own invention, but a timeless truth available to any who attend to the way the world itself is.
For although all things happen according to this Word, they are like the unexperienced experiencing words and deeds such as I explain when I distinguish each thing according to its nature and show how it is. Other men are unaware of what they do when they are awake just as they are forgetful of what they do when they are asleep. B1 He begins by warning his readers that most of them will not understand his message. To take a simple example: moroi mezones mezonas moiras lanchanousi.
Deaths that are greater greater portions gain. B25 Heraclitus uses alliteration four m-words in a row and chiasmus an ABBA pattern to link death and reward. The character of man is his guardian spirit. Philosophical Principles Although his words are meant to provide concrete vicarious encounters with the world, Heraclitus adheres to some abstract principles which govern the world.
On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow. Cleanthes from Arius Didymus from Eusebius B49a. Heraclitus Homericus B91[a]. Heraclitus sometimes explains how things have opposite qualities: Sea is the purest and most polluted water: for fish drinkable and healthy, for men undrinkable and harmful.
When he says, Collections: wholes and not wholes; brought together, pulled apart; sung in unison, sung in conflict; from all things one and from one all things B10 he does not contradict himself. Most tellingly, Heraclitus explains just how contraries are connected: As the same thing in us are living and dead, waking and sleeping, young and old.
For these things having changed around are those, and those in turn having changed around are these. Heraclitus, however, advocates a radical kind of change: For souls it is death to become water, for water death to become earth, but from earth water is born, and from water soul.
B36 Here soul seems to occupy the place of fire. Cosmology Although Heraclitus is more than a cosmologist, he does offer a cosmology. His most fundamental statement on cosmology is found in B This world-order [ kosmos ], the same of all, no god nor man did create, but it ever was and is and will be: everliving fire, kindling in measures and being quenched in measures. Heraclitus describes the transformations of elementary bodies: The turnings of fire: first sea, and of sea half is earth, half fireburst.
Heraclitus seems to acknowledge this in his praise of war and strife: We must recognize that war is common, strife is justice, and all things happen according to strife and necessity. B80 War is father of all and king of all; and some he manifested as gods, some as men; some he made slaves, some free.
B53 Conflicting powers of opposites, including those of elemental bodies, make possible the world and all its variety; without that conflict we would have only lifeless uniformity. There is, however, a guiding force in the world: Thunderbolt steers all things. B64 The fiery shaft of lightning is a symbol of the direction of the world. Knowledge Plato held that for Heraclitus knowledge is made impossible by the flux of sensible objects.
Yet in contrast to those who view knowledge as an accumulation of information or wisdom as a collection of sayings, he requires much more than sensation and memory: Learning many things does not teach understanding. Else it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, as well as Xenophanes and Hecataeus. B40 In this statement Heraclitus reviews the leading authorities of his day, living the last three and dead, dealing with religious and secular knowledge, and finds them all wanting.
He cites with approval a model of religious instruction: The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither reveals nor conceals, but gives a sign. B93 The riddling statements of the Delphic oracle do not provide straightforward answers, but force people to interpret them. He criticizes his fellow citizens for banishing a distinguished leader: The adult citizens of Ephesus should hang themselves, every one, and leave the city to children, since they have banished Hermodorus, a man pre-eminent among them, saying, Let no one stand out among us; or let him stand out elsewhere among others.
B Evidently he trusts the few and distrusts the many. He sees good laws as being reflections of universal principles: Speaking with sense we must fortify ourselves in the common sense of all, as a city is fortified by its law, and even more forcefully.
For all human laws are nourished by the one divine law. For it prevails as far as it will and suffices for all and is superabundant. Influence Although Heraclitus is not known to have had students, his writings seem to have been influential from an early time. Addendum The recently published Derveni Papyrus, discovered in a tomb in northern Greece, contains a commentary on an Orphic poem.
There is an important new edition of the Presocratics, which contains a volume mostly dedicated to Heraclitus, with a generous selection of texts including many dedicated to reception Laks and Most There is also an important new study of Heraclitus that defends a traditional interpretation of the sources Finkelberg Bibliography Editions Bollack, J. Conche, M. Kahn, C. Most, , Early Greek Philosophy , vol.
Mouraviev, Serge, —, Heraclitea , 11 vols. Robinson, T. Studies Barnes, J. Betegh, G. Burkert, W. Dilcher, R. Fattal, M. Graham, D. Caston and D. Graham eds. Curd and D.
Hussey, E. Schofield and M. Nussbaum eds. Kirk, G. Long, A. Nehamas, A. Nussbaum, M. Patin, A. Polito, R. Reinhardt, K. Sider, D. Obbink eds. Vlastos, G. Academic Tools How to cite this entry. Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.
Philoctetes , a site with several linked resources on Heraclitus. The Fragments of Heraclitus , translated by G. Of them the proverb says: "Present, they are absent. Especially at the present time, when all places are accessible either by land or by water, we should not accept poets and mythologists as witnesses of things that are unknown, since for the most part they furnish us with unreliable testimony about disputed things, according to Heraclitus. He scil. Thales seems, according to some, to have been the first to study astronomy and to foretell the eclipses and motions of the sun, as Eudemus relates in his account of astronomical works.
And for this reason he is honored by Xenophanes and Herodotus, and both Heraclitus and Democritus bear witness to him. Thus Time, having a necessary union and connection with heaven, is not simple motion, but, so to speak, motion in an order, having measured limits and periods.
Of which the sun, being overseer and guardian to limit, direct, appoint and proclaim the changes and seasons which, according to Heraclitus, produce all things, is the helper of the leader and first God, not in small or trivial things, but in the greatest and most important.
They suppose him to have possessed the greatest knowledge, who indeed did not know day and night. For they are one. But he is changed, just as when incense is mingled with incense, but named according to the pleasure of each. Some think that odor consists in smoky exhalation, common to earth and air, and that for smell all things are converted into this. And it was for this reason that Heraclitus thus said that if all existing things should become smoke, perception would be by the nostrils.
And Heraclitus blamed the poet who said, "Would that strife were destroyed from among gods and men. It is a harmony of oppositions, as in the case of the bow and of the lyre. In reference to these things, some seek for deeper principles and more in accordance with nature.
Euripides says, "The parched earth loves the rain, and the high heaven, with moisture laden, loves earthward to fall. Dry dust and ashes must be placed near the wall where the roof or eaves shelter the court, in order that there may be a place where the birds may sprinkle themselves, for with these things they improve their wings and feathers, if we may believe Heraclitus, the Ephesian, who says, "Hogs wash themselves in mud and doves in dust.
And good and evil scil. They say that it is unfitting that the sight of wars should please the gods. But it is not so. For noble works delight them, and while wars and battles seem to us terrible, to God they do not seem so.
For God in his dispensation of all events, perfects them into a harmony of the whole, just as, indeed, Heraclitus says that to God all things are beautiful and good and right, though men suppose that some are right and others wrong. What we see in sleep is a dream. It wills and wills not to be called by the name of Zeus.
For when is death not present with us? As indeed Heraclitus says: Living and dead, awake and asleep, young and old, are the same. For these several states are transmutations of each other. We both are and are not. Goettling reckon a generation at thirty years, according to Heraclitus, in which time a father may have a son who is himself at the age of puberty.
Lydus de Mensibus iii.
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