[close] Heraclitus (/ˌhɛrəˈklaɪtəs/; Greek: Ἡράκλειτος Herákleitos; fl. c. 500 BC)[1] was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire.

Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote a single work, only fragments of which have survived. Most of the ancient stories about him are thought to be later fabrications based on interpretations of the preserved fragments. His paradoxical philosophy and appreciation for wordplay and cryptic, oracular epigrams has earned him the epithets "the dark" and "the obscure" since antiquity. He was considered arrogant and depressed, a misanthrope who was subject to melancholia. Consequently, he became known as "the weeping philosopher" in contrast to the ancient philosopher Democritus, who was known as "the laughing philosopher".

The central idea of Heraclitus' philosophy is the unity of opposites and the concept of change. He also saw harmony and justice in strife. He viewed the world as constantly in flux, always "becoming" but never "being". He expressed this in sayings like panta rhei ("Everything flows") and "No man ever steps in the same river twice." This changing aspect of his philosophy is contrasted with that of the ancient philosopher Parmenides, who believed in "being" and in the static nature of reality.

Like the Milesians before him, Thales with water, Anaximander with apeiron, and Anaximenes with air, Heraclitus chose fire as the arche, the fundamental element that gave rise to the other elements. He also saw the logos as giving structure to the world.

Life

Theater in Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor, birthplace of Heraclitus
Heraclitus the son of Blyson was from the Ionian city of Ephesus, a port on the Kayster River, on the western coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). In the 6th century BC, Ephesus, like other cities in Ionia, lived under the effects of both the rise of Lydia under Croesus, and his overthrow by Cyrus the Great c. 547 BC.[2] Ephesus appears to have subsequently cultivated a close relationship with the Persian Empire; during the suppression of the Ionian revolt by Darius the Great in 494 BC, Ephesus was spared and emerged as the dominant Greek city in Ionia.[2] Miletus, the home to the previous philosophers, was sacked and captured.[3]

The main source for the life of Heraclitus is the doxographer Diogenes Laërtius.[a] Although most of the information provided by Laertius is unreliable, the anecdote that Heraclitus relinquished the hereditary title of "king" to his younger brother may at least imply that Heraclitus was from an aristocratic family in Ephesus.[2][note 1] Heraclitus appears to have had little sympathy for democracy or the masses.[c][d] But it is unclear whether he was "an unconditional partisan of the rich," or if like the sage Solon he was "withdrawn from competing factions."[2]

Since antiquity, Heraclitus was labeled an arrogant misanthrope.[5][6][a] The skeptic Timon of Phlius called Heraclitus a "mob-abuser" (ochloloidoros).[a] Heraclitus considered himself self-taught.[e] He did not consider others incapable, but unwilling: "And though reason is common, most people live as though they had an understanding peculiar to themselves."[f] Heraclitus did not seem to like the prevailing religion of the time, criticizing the popular mystery cults.[g][h][i] He also reprimands all of Homer,[j][k] Hesiod,[l] Pythagoras,[m] Xenophanes, and Hecataeus.[a][n] Even the few times he praises someone, he seems to show antipathy to everyone else. He liked the sage Bias of Priene, who is quoted as saying "Most men are bad."[o] He praises one Hermodorus as the best among the Ephesians, who he says should all kill themselves for exiling him.[p]

Heraclitus is traditionally considered to have flourished in the 69th Olympiad (504–501 BC),[7][a] but this date may simply be based on a prior account synchronizing his life with the reign of Darius the Great.[2][note 2] However, this date can be considered "roughly accurate" based on the fragment that references Pythagoras, Xenophanes, and Hecataeus as older contemporaries, placing him near the end of the sixth century BC.[2][9]

Writings

A modern reconstruction of the Ephesian Temple of Artemis, located in Istanbul. According to Diogenes Laertius, Heraclitus deposited his book in the temple.
Heraclitus is said to have produced a single work on papyrus,[a] which has not survived; however, over 100 fragments of this work survive in quotations by other authors.[note 3] The title is unknown,[12] but many later writers refer to this work, and works by other pre-Socratics, as On Nature.[13][a] According to Diogenes Laërtius, Heraclitus deposited the book in the Artemision – one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as a dedication.[a]

Classicist Charles Kahn states: "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".[14] Yet by the time of Simplicius of Cilicia, a 6th century neoplatonic philosopher, who mentions Heraclitus 32 times but never quotes from him, Heraclitus' work was so rare that it was unavailable even to Simplicius and the other scholars at the Platonic Academy in Athens.[15]

Diogenes Laertius wrote the book was divided into three parts: the universe, politics, and theology;[a] but classicist John Burnet notes "it is not to be supposed that this division is due to [Heraclitus] himself; all we can infer is that the work fell naturally into these parts when the Stoic commentators took their editions of it in hand."[16] The Stoics liked to divide their own philosophy into three parts: ethics, logic, and physics.[17] And as philologist Karl Deichgräber noticed, the Stoic Cleanthes divided philosophy into dialectics, rhetoric, ethics, politics, physics, and theology; and the last three are the same as the alleged division of Heraclitus.[18] The philosopher Paul Schuster argued the division came from the Pinakes.[19][20]

Scholar Martin Litchfield West claims that while the existing fragments do not give much of an idea of the overall structure,[21] the beginning of the discourse can probably be determined,[note 4] starting with the opening lines, which are quoted by Sextus Empiricus:[q]

Of the logos being forever do men prove to be uncomprehending, both before they hear and once they have heard it. 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 declare 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.

The Obscure

Heraclitus's writing style has been compared to a sibyl (painted by Domenichino, c. 1616–17).
Aristotle quotes part of the opening line in the Rhetoric to outline the difficulty in punctuating Heraclitus without ambiguity; he debated whether "forever" applied to "being" or to "prove".[1][r] Theophrastus says (in Diogenes Laërtius) "some parts of his work [are] half-finished, while other parts [made] a strange medley".[a] Theophrastus thought an inability to finish the work showed Heraclitus was melancholic.[a]

According to Diogenes Laërtius, Timon of Phlius called Heraclitus "the Riddler" (αἰνικτής; ainiktēs) a likely reference to an alleged similarity to Pythagorean riddles.[22] Timon said Heraclitus wrote his book "rather unclearly" (asaphesteron); according to Timon, this was intended to allow only the "capable" to attempt it.[a] By the time of Cicero, this epithet became "The Dark" (ὁ Σκοτεινός; ho Skoteinós) or "The Obscure" as he had spoken nimis obscurē ("too obscurely") concerning nature and had done so deliberately in order to be misunderstood.[23] The oldest extant work calling Heraclitus "the obscure" is the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise De Mundo.[24]

Heraclitus's style has been compared to a Sibyl,[4][25][26] who "with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her."[s] Heraclitus further stated "The lord whose oracle is in Delphi neither declares nor conceals, but gives a sign."[t] Kahn characterized the main features of Heraclitus's writing as "linguistic density" and "resonance."[27] By density he means multiple meanings with one single word or phrase, and by resonance he means one expression evoking another. Heraclitus is fond of literary devices like alliteration and chiasmus.[1]

Heraclitus has thus been the subject of numerous interpretations. According to the entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Heraclitus has been seen as a "material monist or a process philosopher; a scientific cosmologist, a metaphysician and a religious thinker; an empiricist, a rationalist, a mystic; a conventional thinker and a revolutionary; a developer of logic — one who denied the law of non-contradiction; the first genuine philosopher and an anti-intellectual obscurantist."[1]

Unity of opposites and Flux
The hallmarks of Heraclitus' philosophy are the unity of opposites and change, or flux.[4] Diogenes Laërtius summarizes Heraclitus's philosophy, stating; "All things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of things (τὰ ὅλα ta hola ("the whole")) flows like a stream".[a] According to Aristotle, Heraclitus went so far as to be a dialetheist, or one who denies the law of non contradiction.[u]

Several fragments seem to relate to these two concepts;[4] for example on the unity of opposites "The straight and the crooked path of the fuller's comb is one and the same."[v] "The way up is the way down,"[w] and "Beginning and end, on a circle's circumference, are common."[x] "Thou shouldst unite things whole and things not whole, that which tends to unite and that which tends to separate, the harmonious and the discordant; from all things arises the one, and from the one all things."[y]

Over time, the opposites change into each other:[28][29] "Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the others' death and dying the others' life."[z] "As the same thing in us is 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"[aa] and "Cold things warm up, the hot cools off, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet".[ab]

It also seems they change into each other depending on one's point of view, a case of relativism or perspectivism.[28] Heraclitus states "Disease makes health sweet and good; hunger, satiety; toil, rest."[ac] While men drink and wash with water, fish prefer to drink saltwater, pigs prefer to wash in mud, and fowls prefer to wash in dust.[ad][ae][af] "Oxen are happy when they find bitter vetches to eat"[ag] and "asses would have rather have refuse than gold."[ah]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus