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Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 544 BC – c. 483 BC) was the first son of Blyson and his grandfather Androklos a son of the Athenian Tyrant Kodros. Therefore his family used also the title “Basileus” or King. He was assumed as a first son to take a statesman position but instead he accepted that his brother has this privilege. Did he not accept it because he considered it not worthy or difficult to rule the Ephesians: ... ἄξιον Ἐφεσίοις ἡβηδὸν ἀπάγξασθαι πᾶσι καὶ τοῖς ἀνήβοις τὴν πόλιν καταλιπεῖν͵ οἵτινες Ἑρμόδωρον ἄνδρα ἑωυτῶν ὀνήιστον ἐξέβαλον φάντες· ἡμέων μηδὲ εἷς ὀνήιστος ἔστω͵ εἰ δὲ μή͵ ἄλλη τε καὶ μετ΄ ἄλλων. πολυμαθίη νόον ἔχειν οὐ διδάσκει· Ἡσίοδον γὰρ ἂν ἐδίδαξε καὶ Πυθαγόρην αὖτίς τε Ξενοφάνεά τε καὶ Ἑκαταῖον. ...εἶναι γὰρ ἓν τὸ σοφόν, ἐπίστασθαι γνώμην, ὁτέη ἐκυβέρνησε πάντα διὰ πάντων. ...τόν τε Ὅμηρον ἔφασκεν ἄξιον ἐκ τῶν ἀγώνων ἐκβάλλεσθαι καὶ ῥαπίζεσθαι καὶ Ἀρχίλοχον ὁμοίως. In his last years he wrote a book with the Title “From the Nature” writing in the style of an Oracle his work was and is not understood completely and is interpreted in various ways (maybe since only fragments of his work survived). He was called for this reason “o skoteinos” or the dark (obscure) philosopher. Maybe he is not interested to be understood. The majority of people are idiots. The masses do not understand and therefore do not exist in principle or in other words. “They are there but they are also not there”."Heraclitus was exceptionally haughty and supercilious and ... eventually became a misanthrope who lived in the mountains and fed on grasses and plants." Diogenes Laertius His health was not so well in his last years. He considers physicians as useless. Cutting and burning, which are normally bad, call for a fee when done by a surgeon. He is an atheist. The world is not a work of God or anybody. This cosmos was not made by gods or men, but always was, and is, and ever shall be ever-living fire. The world is a continuous fight were the forces are almost of equal strength. The harmony is in principle the result of this fight which leads to the conclusion: ...ὁδὸς ἄνω κάτω μία καὶ ὡυτή. The way up and down is the same.
Language itself is in flux, i.e. language is a limited tool for making assertions about metaphysics and the nature of things. The Logos is change; everything is its opposite. Heraclitus considers limitations of language. He actually does assert contradictory things in order to make the point that our assertions about reality are meaningless, in that they are too limited to get at what reality is really like. τῷ οὖν τόξῳ ὄνομα βίος͵ ἔργον δὲ θάνατος λέγει που Ἡράκλειτος, ὅτι πάντα χωρεῖ, καὶ οὐδὲν μένει· καὶ ποταμοῦ ῥοῇ ἀπεικάζων τὰ ὄντα λέγει, ὡς δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης. Socrates: Heracleitus is supposed to say that all things are in motion and nothing at rest; he compares them to the stream of a river, and says that you cannot go into the same water twice. Plato Cratylus 402A1 “πάντα χωρεί και ουδέν μένει και ποταμού ροή απεικάζων τα όντα λέγει ως δις εις τον αυτόν ποταμόν ουκανεμβαίης” He is famous for his opinion “Ta panta rhei”. Everything changes and from Plato's reference Cratylus: You cannot take a bath twice in the same river is another variant. The water flows, the river bed changes by this flow but actually also we are not the same, we change continuously, our mind and our body. But even if the river changes it has the same name. So even if it is the same river it is not the same. Advances in cosmology and black holes physics lend new emphasis to some of the most remarkable consequences of Einstein's standard theory:...nature conserves nothing; there is no constant of physics that is not transcended; or, in a word, mutability is a law of nature A similar statement was made 1212 AD by Kamo no Tyômei, a Buddhist monk. I have found from Masuda Kooiti the following translation: The river flow sustains, yet the same water never remains. Bubbles float on the stream; some are dissipated, some are generated, and none can be stationary. Kamo no Tyômei, Hôzyôki Parmenides has a complete different opinion: There remains, then, but one word by which to express the [true] road: Is. And on this road there are many signs that What Is has no beginning and never will be destroyed: it is whole, still, and without end. It neither was nor will be, it simply is—now, altogether, one, continuous…
Heraclitus is interested only in the knowledge of grandiose wisdom and not in details, the learning of many things, like Albert Einstein: “I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.” But Heraclitus says also “For it is very well necessary, that those who love wisdom investigate many things” that probably says that the understanding of the “kosmos” requires to investigate many things (probably its parts). φύσις δὲ καθ' Ἡράκλειτον κρύπτεσθαι φιλεῖ , Nature loves to conceal herself. Various interpretations for example what is the meaning of φύσις ? (Diels , Gigon , Heidegger, etc) In his later years, Heraclitus developed a medical condition known as edema, in which the body suffers from a buildup of excess fluid. Having no faith in practiced physicians, to which he felt intellectually superior, Heraclitus attempted to cure himself in the most bizarre way. He buried himself in a cow stall hoping that the heat from the decaying manure would evaporate his body’s excess water. It did not, and the philosopher died buried up to his neck in cow dung. Tom E. Morris. The Philosophy of Science QUOTATIONS All dilemmas can be solved by unifying the contraries, Constantin Brâncusi (1876-1957) Romanian Sculptor (Info) A deep truth is a truth so deep that not only is it true but it's exact opposite is also true.
'That which is so great that there is nothing outside it may be called the Great One; and that which is so small that there is nothing inside it maybe called the Small One.' 'What has no thickness and will not admit of being repeated is 1000 lî in size.' 'Heaven may be as low as the earth.' 'A mountain may be as level as a marsh.' ' The sun in the meridian may be the sun declining.' 'A creature may be born to life and may die at the same time.' '(When it is said that) things greatly alike are different from things a little alike, this is what is called making little of agreements and differences; (when it is said that) all things are entirely alike or entirely different, this is what is called making much of agreements and differences.' 'The south is unlimited and yet has a limit.' Zhuangzi Chuang Chou about the sayings of Hui Shih (4th century BC) ; Zhuangzi who dreamed that he was a butterfly and after he woke up, he wondered whether he was Zhuangzi who had just finished dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who had just started dreaming he was Zhuangzi. LINKS
Heraclitus, The unity of opposites, Puzzles about Identity and Persistence, The Flux Doctrine etc Heraclitus: The Complete Philosophical Fragments Heidegger's Reading of Heraclitus Parts of Heraclitus fragments in ancient and modern Greek Being and Becoming in Modern Physics Images BRAMANTE, Heraclitus and Democritus 1477 Reports in Modern Greek ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΤΟΣ Η ΖΩΗ ΚΑΙ Η ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑ ΤΟΥ Presocratic Philosophers series Thales | Anaximander | Anaximenes | Pythagoras | Philolaus | Archytas | Empedocles | Heraclitus | Parmenides | Zeno of Elea | Melissus | Xenophanes | Anaxagoras | Leucippus | Democritus | Protagoras | Gorgias | Prodicus | Hippias | Pherecydes
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