Heraclitus of Ephesus ~

Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Question: What was Heraclitus’ great contribution to Greek philosophy?

Claim: Heraclitus was the first “metaphysician”—the first to think on the question of the unity of being, and to discover many questions later philosophers would have about –relativity of perception –ambiguity of language –identity of objects over time –human self-knowledge

Logos: Double Meanings Listening not to me, but to the Logos, it is wise to agree: all things are one. This Logos holds always but humans prove unable to grasp it. The Lord whose oracle is at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but gives a sign…

Harmony-in-tension in Nature They do not understand how, at variance with itself, it agrees with itself, a backwards-turning attunement. Together whole and divided, accordant and discordant, coming together in one, dividing into all things. God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety and hunger.

What is Heraclitus’ ‘Fire’? Matter: Fire lives the death of earth and air the death of fire, water lives the death of air, earth that of water. Universal Process: This cosmos, the same for all, none of the gods nor humans has made, but it was always and is and shall be: an ever-living fire being kindled in measures and extinguished in measures. Being itself: All things are an exchange for fire…

Two Fragments This kosmos, the same for all, none of the gods nor humans has made, but it was always and is and shall be: an ever-living fire being kindled in measures and extinguished in measures. To God all things are beautiful and just and good; but humans have supposed some unjust and other just.

Relativity The sun’s breadth is the length of a [human] foot. The sea is the purest [to fishes] and most polluted water [to humans] The most beautiful ape is ugly [to a human] ; the wisest human is an ape [to a god]

 : the Doctrine of Flux Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow. It is not possible to step twice into the same river. We step and do not step into the same rivers. We are and we are not.

“All things flow.” 4 types What is the flow or change of physical elements? The flow or change of individuals? The flow of social or natural laws? The flow of concepts?

Cratylus the Heraclitean You cannot step into the same river even once. Nouns are all a lie and should be replaced by gerunds. A tree is not a thing; it is a treeing. Things seem to be, but in reality, they are all in motion, on fire.

Identity over time Theseus, sailing ship A to Crete, replaces plank by plank of his ship. Scavenger, following in ship B, picks them from the sea and replaces all the parts of his own ship, before they make land. Is Theseus still sailing the same ship? Or is Scavenger now sailing ship A?

Identity over time Component Parts Theory (CPT) –if any part is taken away, no longer the same Spatio-Temporal Continuity Theory (STC) –if broken down & reassembled, not be the same Ownership Theory (OT) –as long as Theseus owns it, it is the same Essential Properties Theory (EPT) –some properties essential, some not

Self-Knowledge It belongs to all people to know themselves and to think rightly. I searched myself. The soul has a self-increasing logos.

Ethics: meanings = ? A man when drunk is led by a boy. Whatever anger wants it buys at the cost of soul. Character [is] fate.

Law (Nomos) The people must fight for the law as for the city wall.

Heraclitean Frame of Meaning Nature = Logos = changing framework of physical & intellectual world, but “Nature loves to hide” Humans must discover [and re- discover] the Logos to overcome delusion

The aeon (unending time) is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child. (Curd #109)

Aesthetic View of Life Just as the child and the artist play, the eternally living fire plays, builds up and destroy-- this is the game the Aeon (God, Nature) plays with himself. Who will demand from such a philosophy a moral vindication of life? Heraclitus is not compelled to prove this is the best of all possible worlds, as if he were Christian: it is enough for Heraclitus that the world is the beautiful, innocent play of the Aeon. It is not for the mere human to judge the world; it is for him to share in it, as a creator himself. --Nietzsche