Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (Greek Template:Polytonic Herakleitos) (about 535 - 475 BC), known as "The Obscure", was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Ephesus in Asia Minor. The details of Heraclitus' life are almost completely unknown. "Reliable information is limited to the fact that he was a native of Ephesus, on the coast of Asia Minor north of Miletus, and that his father's name was Bloson."[1] Heraclitus is the first person in the history of the western world to have put forward a robust philosophical system. His writings have later influences upon Socrates and Plato. 19th Century Philosophy has also paid close attention to Heraclitus.
Philosophical fragments
We know that Heraclitus wrote a book; Diogenes Laertius tells us this in his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. Diogenes also tells us that he deposited his book as a dedication in the great temple of Artemis, the Artemesium, one of the largest temples of the 6th Century (Kierkegaard makes use of this historical fact in one of the greatest excerpts from Fear and Trembling). Diogenes' report here is likely to be true; ancient temples were regularly used for storing treasures, and were open to private individuals under exceptional circumstances. Furthermore, many subsequent philosophers in this period refer to the work. "Down to the time of Plutarch and Clement, if not later, the little book of Heraclitus was available in its original form to any reader who chose to seek it out."[1] Furthermore, Heraclitus also became immensely popular in the period following his writing. Within a generation or two "the book acquired such fame that it produced partisans of his philosophy who were called Heracliteans."[2]
Unfortunately, (as with other pre-Socratics) his writings only survive in fragments quoted by other authors. He disagreed with Thales, Anaximander, and Pythagoras about the nature of the ultimate substance, but instead claimed that the nature of everything is change itself; he uses fire-- with its connotations of both Promethean/human "fire", and the cosmic fire outlined by contemporaneous pre-Socractics-- as a metaphor rather than his solution to material monism. This led to the belief that change is real, and stability illusory. For Heraclitus everything is "in flux", as exemplified in his famous aphorism "Panta Rhei":
Template:Polytonic
Everything flows, nothing stands still
Heraclitus is recognized as one of the earliest dialectical philosophers with his acknowledgement of the universality of change and development through internal contradictions, as in his statements:
"By cosmic rule, as day yields night, so winter summer, war peace, plenty famine. All things change. Fire penetrates the lump of myrrh, until the joining bodies die and rise again in smoke called incense."
"Men do not know how that which is drawn in different directions harmonises with itself. The harmonious structure of the world depends upon opposite tension like that of the bow and the lyre."
He is famous for expressing the notion that no man can cross the same river twice:
ποταμος τος ατος μβαίνομέν τε κα οκ μβαίνομεν
εμέν τε κα οκ εμεν.
We both step and do not step in the same rivers.
We are and are not.
The idea of the logos is also credited to him, as he proclaims that everything originates out of the logos. Further, Heraclitus said
"I am as I am not,"
and
"He who hears not me but the logos will say: All is one."
Heraclitus held that an explanation of change was foundational to any theory of nature. This view was strongly opposed by Parmenides, who argued that change is an illusion and that everything is fundamentally static. This promotion of change also led Heraclitus to promote conflict (e.g., agon in Greek) and to argue against Homer, as he saw strife as something that led to change:
"War is the father of all and the king of all"
"Every animal is driven to pasture with a blow"
His view on the random chance inherent in the universe is famously the direct opposite of Einstein's:
"Time is a child playing dice; the kingly power is a child's." Heraclitus
"God does not play dice with the universe." Einstein
The Heraclitean emphasis on the nature of things and existence as one of constant change, expressed with language of polarity, is particularly reminiscent of another ancient philosophical tradition, that of Taoism: the Tao (or "the Way") often refers to a space-time sequence, and is similarly expressed with seemingly-contradictory language (e.g., "The Way is like an empty vessel / that may still be drawn from / without ever needing to be filled"). Indeed, parallels may be drawn between the fundamental concepts of the logos (as it was understood during Heraclitus's time) and the Tao.
Heraclitus is described as having a melancholy disposition, and is sometimes referred to as the "weeping philosopher", as opposed to Democritus, who is known as the "laughing philosopher".[3][4]
There are several legendary stories about Heraclitus, especially concerning his eventual death from illness (and supposed attempt to stave off death using dung and ignoring doctors). These mostly stem from mis-interpretations of the metaphors in his fragments and an attempt to construct a narrative based on these fragments ."[5] (Kirk 1954).
Influence
The interpretation of Heraclitus varies, partly due to the fragmentary nature of his statements. Though many philosophers have acknowledged his influence, including Plato and Aristotle, his central concept of Becoming, in which ontological opposites are seen as fundamentally interrelated.
Karl Popper accused Heraclitus as having played a part in laying the foundations for a closed society. In particular, Popper concludes that Heraclitus relativises moral values, quoting Heraclitus: "The good and the bad are identical", relating to Heraclitus's theory of the unity of opposites. Popper also alleges Heraclitus of having formulated a historicist doctrine based on the "justice of war and the verdict of history a tribalist and romantic ethic of Fame, Fate, and the superiority of the Great Man".[6]
Notes
- ^ a b Kahn, Charles. The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: Fragments with Translation and Commentary. London: Cambridge University Press, 1979. ISBN 052128645X. p. 1–23.
- ^ Laertius, Diogenes. The Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1965
- ^ Kenny, Anthony. A Brief History of Western Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0631201327
- ^ Montaigne, Michel de. "Of Democritus and Heraclitus". The Essays of Michel de Montaigne.
- ^ Kirk, G.S. Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments. London: Cambridge University Press, 1954. ISBN 521054259
- ^ Popper, Karl, The Open Society and Its Enemies: Vol. 1 The Spell of Plato London: Routledge Classics, 1965.
References
- Heraclitus, Herakleitos and Diogenes, translated by Guy Davenport, Bolinas: Grey Fox Press, 1979. ISBN 0912516364 (Complete fragments of Heraclitus translated into English)
- Heraclitus, Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus, translated by Brooks Haxton, forward by James Hillman, (parallel English & Greek), Viking Penguin 2001 ISBN 0-670-89195-9.
- Martin Heidegger and Eugen Fink, Heraclitus Seminar, translated by Charles H. Seibert (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993). ISBN 0810110679. (Transcript of seminar in which two major German philosophers engage in detailed analysis and discussion of Heraclitus texts)
See also
External links
- Heraclitus at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Fragments of Heraclitus in Greek (Unicode) and English
- Heraclitus at Washington State University
- The Flux and Fire Philosophy of Heraclitus
- Fragments of Heraclitus
- John Burnet Early Greek Philosophy: brief analysis; the fragments
- Tom Bearden Fourth Law of Logic an approach to Heraclitus's change paradox