Heraclitus

Heraclitus

Heraclitus lived around 500 BC in the city of Ephesus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He became famous as the "flux and fire" philosopher for his proverbial utterance: "All things are flowing." Coming from an eminent aristocratic family, Heraclitus is the first nobleman in the cabinet of Greek philosophers. He introduced important new perspectives into Greek thought and produced a book.

 Knowing Heraclitus' personality may help us to put his philosophical theories into the proper light. Let us look at the idea of flux and fire. Before Heraclitus, the world of the ancient Greeks had been fairly static. The Olympic Gods were eternal as the world they were gazing down upon. Everything was firmly embedded into an indivisible universe. The common principles of nature were perceived as everlasting and unchangeable, although what mankind knew about them was certainly limited.

The Greeks before Heraclitus focused on the essence of things, its nature and being, which they deemed unchangeable. In contrast, Heraclitus said: "You cannot step into the same river twice, for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you." This simple sentence expresses the gist of his philosophy, meaning that the river isn't actually the same at two different points in time. - It is a radical position and Heraclitus was the to conceive it. He looked at everything being in the state of permanent flux and, hence, reality being merely a succession of transitory states. He told people that nothing is the same now as it was before, and thus nothing what is now will be the same tomorrow. With this he planted the idea of impermanence into Greek thought, and indeed, after Heraclitus Greek philosophy was not the same anymore.

Heraclitus held that fire is the primordial element out of which everything else arises. Fire is the origin of all matter; through it things come into being and pass away. Fire itself is the symbol of perpetual change because it transforms a substance into another substance without being a substance itself: "This world, which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made; but it was ever, is now, and ever shall be eternal fire."

Like Anaximander, Heraclitus sees a cosmic balance in the struggle of the elements, water, air, fire, earth. Due to the eternal transmutation of forms, which are made of the elements, no single element ever gains predominance. This implies that Heraclitus thinks of fire as a non-destructive; but merely transforming power. The process of transformation does not happen by chance, but is, according to Heraclitus, the product of God's reason -logos-, which is identical to the cosmic principles.

When Heraclitus speaks of God, he doesn't mean the Greek gods, neither a personal entity. Instead he thinks that God is living in every soul and even in every material thing on earth. The fiery element is the expression of God in everything, thus he is in every sense a pantheist.

Another of Heraclitus' main teachings can be called the "unity of opposites". The unity of opposites means that opposites cannot exist without each other - there is no day without night, no summer without winter, no warm without cold, no good without bad. To put it in his own words: "It is wise to agree that all things are one. From a modern perspective it seems trivial to state that opposites are the same, yet to the Greek it was not entirely obvious. Hot and cold can both be expressed as a degree of temperature, dark and bright as a degree of light. Nonetheless, the Heraclitean theory of perpetual flux and universal transformation goes far beyond what was obvious to the ancients:

"Science, like philosophy, has sought to escape from the doctrine of perpetual flux by finding some permanent substratum amid changing phenomena. Chemistry seemed to satisfy this desire. It was found that fire, which appears to destroy, only transmutes: elements are recombined, but each atom that existed before combustion still exists when the process is completed.

Accordingly it was supposed that atoms are indestructible, and that all change in the physical world consists merely in rearrangement of persistent elements. This view prevailed until the discovery of radioactivity, when it was found that atoms could disintegrate. Nothing daunted, the physicist invented new and smaller units, called electrons and protons, out of which atoms where composed; and these units were supposed, for a few years, to have the indestructibility formerly attributed to the atoms.

Unfortunately it seemed that protons and electrons could meet and explode, forming, not new matter, but a wave of energy spreading through the universe with the velocity of light. Energy had to replace matter as what is permanent.

Heraclitus (540 BCE - 480 BCE) is certainly the most important and influential pre-Socratic philosopher. His significance is undisputable even though all we have of his work is a few more than a hundred sentences. This relative scarcity and fragmentation of material in no way consigns his thoughts to a mere collection of unconnected and tangent ideas. Heraclitus’ philosophy has a clear essence and focus. That ‘everything is flux’, that ‘all things are one’, and the ‘unification of opposites’, are the fundamental and lasting ideas of Heraclitus, as well as the very heart of his philosophy of dynamic equilibrium

Some Quotes of Heraclitus

1.       “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” 

2.      “The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny - it is the light that guides your way.” 

3.      “To be even minded is the greatest virtue. Wisdom is to speak

4.       “Nothing endures but change.” 

5.      “How can you hide from what never goes away?” 

6.      “We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.” 

7.       “Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise.” 

8.      “Much learning does not teach understanding.” 

9.      “It is in changing that we find purpose.” 

10.  “The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.” 

11.   “The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change -” 

12.   “The sun is new each day.” 

13.   “All things are in flux; the flux is subject to a unifying measure or rational principle. This principle (logos, the hidden harmony behind all change) bound opposites together in a unified tension, which is like that of a lyre, where a stable harmonious sound emerges from the tension of the opposing forces that arise from the bow bound together by the string.” 

14.  “All are one” 

15.  “The awake share a common world, but the asleep turn aside into private worlds.” 

16.  “It ever was, and is, and shall be, ever-living fire, in measures being kindled and in measures going out.” 

17.  “The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts.” 

18.  “Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive.” 

19.  Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the others' death and dying the others' life.

Heraclitus – Biography

Heraclitus is certainly the most important and influential pre-Socratic philosopher. His significance is undisputable even though all we have of his work is a few more than a hundred sentences. Heraclitus’ philosophy has a clear essence and focus. That ‘everything is flux’, that ‘all things are one’, and the ‘unification of opposites’, are the fundamental and lasting ideas of Heraclitus, as well as the very heart of his philosophy of dynamic equilibrium.

The central idea of Heraclitus’ thought is undoubtedly the unity of opposites. Moreover, Heraclitus claimed that all things are one. This ‘unity of all things’ is based on the fact that there is a common formula, i.e. logos, which is at work in everything to which we attribute temporal and spatial identity and continuity. Heraclitus should not be misunderstood as denying the phenomenal difference between day and night, hot and cold, up and down, and even death and life, rather, his claim is that each opposite is inseparable from its other, and that they depend on one another for their own identity. In other words, if one of the pair is removed the other immediately disappears.

Heraclitus’ famous phrase that ‘you can’t step in the same river twice’ should be understood as the claim that things which seem to have a stable identity, in fact depend upon a continual interchange or succession of their constitutive parts, or outright antagonistic forces, for their identity. The statement that ‘all things are one’, has two particular consequences: first, from a divine perspective, the contrary evaluations accorded to sets of opposites are transcended, and second, that human discrimination between pairs of opposites are ultimately arbitrary.

Heraclitus’ aim is, as mentioned before, to awaken drunken souls and entice them to rethink their beliefs about religion, society, death and life. He also makes a firm distinction between those who seek and attain immortal fame, and those who revel in mindless satisfactions.

 

( A Pause, well needed

 

One day I met Mulla Nasruddin on the road. He was walking with his two children.

So I said, 'How are your two children?'

He said, 'Both are good.'

I said, 'How old are they?'

He said, 'The doctor is five and the lawyer is seven!')

Heraclitus sees the great majority of human beings as lacking understanding:

Most people sleep-walk through life, not understanding what is going on about them. Yet experience of words and deeds can enlighten those who are receptive to their meaning.

It is perhaps Heraclitus’s chief project to explain in what sense all things are one.

This world-order, the same of all, no god nor man did create, but it ever was and is and will be:

If it were not for the constant conflict of opposites, there would be no alternations of day and night, hot and cold, summer and winter, even life and death. Indeed, if some things did not die, others would not be born.

To maintain the balance of the world, we must posit an equal and opposite reaction to every change. Heraclitus observes.

Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars.

Seekers after gold dig up much earth and find little

Let us not make arbitrary conjectures about the greatest matters.

Much learning does not teach understanding, otherwise it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, Xenophanes and Hecataeus.

Of those whose discourses I have heard there is not one who attains to the realization that wisdom stands apart from all else.

Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears.

One should not act or speak as if he were asleep.

The waking have one world in common,

Nature loves to hide itself

(One more pause

Mulla Nasruddin was caught again and again with some woman's hair on his coat. He asked a friend what to do. The friend said, "It is simple. Before entering the house, you just clean your coat. Keep a brush with yourself."

He said, "That's a good idea! It never occurred to me -- so simple!" So one day he found a brush. Outside the house he completely cleaned his coat, and suit, and shirt, and entered the house.

The wife looked at his coat, at his pants, and simply started beating her head and crying and screaming! He said, "What has happened? There is no hair at all!"

She said, "That's why I am crying. It seems you have started loving some bald woman!")

Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain.

You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters and yet others go ever flowing on. They go forward and back again.

Cool things become warm, the warm grows cool, the

moist dries, the parched becomes moist.

It is in changing that things find repose.

This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures.

It throws apart and then brings together again; it advances and retires.

When earth has melted into sea, the resultant amount is the same as there had been before sea became earth.

The sun is , as. states, not only new each day, but forever continually new.

It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish.

Fools, although they hear, are like the deaf. To them the adage applies that "when present they are absent".

Most people do not take heed of the things they find, nor do they grasp them even when they have learned about them, although they think they do.

Human nature has no real understanding, only the divine nature has it.

Man is not rational, there is intelligence only in what encompasses him

Although intimately connected with the Logos which orders the whole world, men keep setting themselves against it, and the things which they encounter every day seem quite foreign to them.

Immortals become mortals, mortals become immortals; they live in each other's death and die in each other's life.

How can anyone hide from that which never sets?

Again, Fire is special, as near to the concept of energy as could be found in the Greek world. For our use an electric current is a clearer manifestation of energy, but still only manifestation.

One man is worth ten thousand if he is first-rate

( Are two quite enough ? Have one more ….

Mulla Nasruddin and his wife are sitting one Sunday listening to the radio, when this faith healer comes on and he says, "If you have a part of your body you want healed, place one hand on the radio and the other hand on the afflicted part."

The wife placed one hand on the radio and the other on her heart. The Mulla placed one hand on the radio and the other on his appendage.

So the wife said, "Mulla, he's trying to cure the sick, not raise the dead."

Understood  ??)

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

To God all things are beautiful, good, and right. Men, on the other hand, deem some things right and others wrong.

The way up and the way down are one and the same. Into the same rivers we step and do not step. We exist and we do not exist.

It is one and the same thing to be living and dead, awake or asleep, young or old. The former aspect in each case becomes the latter, and the latter