Information about Heraclitus
| Western Philosophy Ancient philosophy | |
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Heraclitus by Johannes Moreelse. The image depicts him as "the weeping philosopher" wringing his hands over the world and "the obscure" dressed in dark clothing, both traditional motifs. | |
| Name: | Heraclitus |
| Birth: | ca. 535 BC |
| Death: | 475 BC |
| School/tradition: | Not considered to belong to any school of thought, but later subscribers to the philosophy were "Heracliteans." |
| Main interests: | Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics |
| Notable ideas: | Logos, flow |
| Influenced: | Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Whitehead, Karl Popper, among many others |
Heraclitus is best known for his doctrine of eternal flux.
Ancient characterizations
The obscure
At some time in antiquity other than his own (at least as far as the evidence indicates) he acquired an epithet denoting that his major sayings were difficult to understand. Timon of Phlius calls him "the riddler" (ainiktēs) according to Diogenes Laertius, [1] who had just explained that Heraclitus wrote his book "rather unclearly" (asaphesteron) so that only the "capable" should attempt it. By the time of Cicero he had become "the dark" (Ancient Greek ὁ Σκοτεινός — ho Skoteinós[2]) because he had spoken nimis obscurē, "too obscurely", concerning nature and had done so deliberately in order to be misunderstood.[3][4] The customary English translation of ὁ Σκοτεινός follows the Latin, "the obscure."The weeping philosopher
Diogenes Laertius[1] ascribes to Theophrastus the theory that Heraclitus did not complete some of his works because of melancholia. No additional detail is given, but the word melancholy comes from the Theory of the Four Humors attributed to Hippocrates. Theophrastus probably did not mean that Heraclitus was inflicted with dyscrasia ("bad mixture"), a hypothetical pathogenic condition caused by the excess of one of the humors, in this case black bile (melaina cholē), as he is not portrayed as insane or as having one of the diseases associated with that condition. Theophrastus probably simply meant that Heraclitus had a melancholy disposition, which is not clear in either English or ancient Greek. Not finishing the work might be a symptom of mild clinical depression; on the other hand, Heraclitus was also "the obscure."Later he was referred to as the "weeping philosopher", as opposed to Democritus, who is known as the "laughing philosopher".[5] If Stobaeus[6], a writer of the late empire, writes correctly, Sotion, mentor of Seneca in the early 1st century AD, was already using the duo as a teaching device: "Among the wise, instead of anger, Heraclitus was overtaken by tears, Democritus by laughter." The laughing Democritus appears alone briefly a few decades earlier in Cicero.[7]
The Pseudepigrapha of the Hippocratic corpus[8] relate the story of a visit to Democritus by Hippocrates to investigate a report by the citizens of Abdera that Democritus had gone insane and was laughing at everything obsessively, including weddings and funerals. Hippocrates found him surrounded by books and the bodies of animals which he had dissected to examine their bile. He said he was investigating the causes of insanity. On being questioned as to why he found the matters at which he laughed comical, he replied with the vanity argument, that all is "folly and baseness" and a waste of time, which is essentially what Heraclitus had said. Hippocrates gave him a "passing" on mental health and went away.
Putting these traditions together the ancient professors of philosophy came up with the imaginative duo of weeping and laughing philosophers. The view is expressed in more or less complete form by the satirist Juvenal:[9]
Subsequently the duo were considered an indispensible feature of philosophic landscapes. Montaigne proposed two archetypical views of human affairs based on them, selecting Democritus' for himself.[10] The weeping philosopher makes an appearance in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Act I Scene II Line 43. Donato Bramante painted a fresco, "Democritus and Heraclitus", in Casa Panigarola in Milan.[11] And so on.The first of prayers, best known at all the temples, is mostly for riches .... Seeing this then do you not commend the one sage Democritus for laughing ... and the master of the other school Heraclitus for his tears?
The Naturalist
Throughout the middle ages and into the 19th century Heraclitus was portrayed as a "naturalist" with varying interpretations of that word. Diogenes says that the book attributed to him was On Nature (peri phuseōs)[12] where the operant word is phusis, "nature." In the next statement Diogenes explains that by this he means "on the universe" (peri tou pantos, literally "about the everything"). In Fragment DK B123 Heraclitus explains that nature likes to hide. This statement places him among those seeking the hidden nature of things, akin to those who were seeking an explanation in substance.Heraclitus had a rather different idea of the hidden nature than substance, but perhaps his ideas were too obscure for the ancient students of philosophy. He was being called physicus at least as early as Cicero:[13] ... nemo physicus obscurus? ... valde Heraclitus obscurus .... "no physicus was obscure? ... Heraclitus the obscure certainly was." In Cicero and elsewhere he is lumped in that category with Democritus; perhaps the myth of the laughing and weeping duo also was having its effect.
The long-standing translation of physicus into English is "naturalist." If phusis is nature, then a phusicus must be a naturalist. For example, Serbati uses naturalist in translating a notable passage from Macrobius, which attributes to Heraclitus the view that the soul is a fragment of starfire.[14] The term naturalist in native English can have a great many meanings, most of which are responsible for myths about the gist of Heraclitus' thought.
Life
The main source for the life of Heraclitus, as is true of many other philosophers, is Diogenes Laertius. Some have questioned the validity of the anecdotes based on political or social conjecture;[15] however, there is no solid scholarship conclusively refuting the anecdotes.[16]Time
Diogenes said that Heraclitus flourished in the 69th Olympiad,[17] which would be 504-501 BC. All the rest of the evidence - whom Heraclitus is said to have known or who implies that he was familiar with Heraclitus' work - confirms the floruit but does nothing to establish the start and end dates. Those vary by several years in different authors but all are based on an estimated life span of 60 years, round numbers, with the floruit in the middle.Place
Heraclitus was born to an aristocratic family in Ephesus, present-day Efes, Turkey. His father was named Bloson.Character
Passing
There are several legendary stories about Heraclitus, especially concerning his eventual death from illness, including his 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.[18]Philosophical fragments
We know from Diogenes Laertius's Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers that Heraclitus wrote a book. 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 BCE (and one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World"). 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."[15] 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."[19]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, and instead claimed that the nature of everything is change itself; according to some interpretations he uses fire — with its connotations of both Promethean/human "fire", and the cosmic fire outlined by contemporaneous pre-Socratics — as a metaphor rather than his solution to material monism, however the nature of the evidence is so sparse that it is difficult to substantiate this claim.. 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" ("Panta Rei"):
)
Heraclitus by Hendrick ter Brugghen
πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει (Plato, Cratylus 402a)
Everything flows and nothing is left (unchanged), or
Everything flows and nothing stands still, or
All things are in motion and nothing remains still.
Heraclitus is recognized as one of the earliest dialectical philosophers with his acknowledgment 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. Air 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."
"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"
He is famous for (allegedly) expressing the notion that no man can enter the same river twice:
"Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν."A modern translation of this quote may better illustrate how Aristotle's later position on the illogic of contradiction was not a direct refutation of Heraclitus:
"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man."
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 said that reality was permanent and unchanging. According to Lavine, Parmenides asked, "How can a thing change into something else? How can it be and not be?" According to Parmenides, change is merely an illusion.[20]
His promotion of change also led Heraclitus to believe that conflict (e.g., ἀγών agon in Greek) is necessary for change to occur and to argue against Homer: "War is the father of all and the king of all" and "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 (in which he stated "God does not play dice with the universe"): "Time is a child moving counters in a game; the kingly power is a child's."
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 have been drawn between the fundamental concepts of the logos (as it was understood during Heraclitus's time) and the Tao.[21]
Influence
The interpretation of Heraclitus' work is diverse, partly due to the fragmentary nature of his statements, and partly due to the perspectives of his interpreters. Although many philosophers have acknowledged his influence, including Plato and Aristotle, his concept of Becoming, in which ontological opposites are seen as fundamentally interrelated, is central to his philosophy. More particularly, he wrote: "Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony" (frag. 98; trans William Harris). Both Plato and Aristotle would have disagreed. Plato believed that each thing has one unchanging essence. Aristotle was the first philosopher to formally state the law of non-contradiction as "one cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect and at the same time." Therefore Aristotelian logic is in direct opposition to logos, because statements like "I am as I am not" clearly violate the law of non-contradiction.- Plato understood Heraclitus as the theorist of "panta rhei" (universal flux), as contrasted with Parmenides' conception of a fixed and stable reality.[22] As a point of clarification, Heraclitus does not appear to have proposed that reality as a whole is unstable, but since Heraclitus recognized nothing but existence itself as stable (existence being one), his philosophy came into conflict with Plato's inclination toward multiple universal absolutes. Plato's theory of forms has been seen as a response to Heraclitus.
- Aristotle saw Heraclitus as "a material monist who derived the entire physical world from fire as its underlying element,"[22] and also as a kind of dialectical philosopher of harmonic opposition.[24][25] Origen and Hippolytus of Rome also appear to have adopted the "dialectical" interpretation.[26][27]
- The Stoics based their cosmology on Aristotle's materialistic interpretation of Heraclitus, and interpreted the Logos as transcendent Reason, immanent in the world. Kahn sees the Stoics as "the true Heracliteans of antiquity."[22]
- Heraclitus' idea of the Logos was very influential on Jewish philosophers such as Philo of Alexandria, who connected it to Jewish notions of "Wisdom personified" as God's creative principle. Philo uses the term Logos throughout his treatises on Hebrew Scripture in a manner clearly influenced by Heraclitus' work.
- The author of the fourth Gospel, the Gospel of St. John (traditionally ascribed to John the Apostle) uses the term Logos throughout the first chapter of his book to describe the pre-human existence of Jesus as the Word (Logos) of God: "In the beginning was the Logos (Word), and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made....And the Logos was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:1, 3, 14)
- Friedrich Nietzsche saw Heraclitus from a process perspective: "Insofar as the senses show becoming, passing away, and change, they do not lie."[29] Heraclitus is commonly recognized as the first advocate of process philosophy the West, and a direct precursor to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
- Alfred North Whitehead, known for having seen all of Western philosophy as the legacy of Plato, saw Heraclitus as Plato did, yet referred to both the forms of Plato and the flux model of Heraclitus in developing his own thoughts on process philosophy.
- Oswald Spengler wrote his doctoral thesis on Heraclitushttp://www.johnreilly.info/sf2.htm, and his notion of eternal war was very strongly influenced by Heraclitus, who saw conflict as "the father of all things."http://www.axess.se/english/2007/01/theme_nordin.php
- Martin Heidegger in his 1943/44 lectures expansively discusses Heraclitus in the context of "the origin of occidental thought" and "logic - Heraclitus' teaching of logos",[30] and credits the very coining of the term "philosophy" to Heraclitus, evidently because of Heraclitus' high regard for "sophon" (wisdom; what is wise).
- 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".[31]
- Carl Jung developed the psychological concept of enantiodromia (in a manner similar to Heraclitus' usage) to illustrate his notion that whenever an individual forms an asymmetrical, conscious ideation as fundamentally predominant, for example, "masculine" values and suppositions of a father archetypalfigure, there will necessarily be opposing forces, and that they will make themselves apparent within the unconscious in various ways as a means to maintain an individual's psychic balance.
Notes
1. ^ Book IX, 6.
2. ^ De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, Chapter 2, Section 15.
3. ^ Compare Plato's not writing anything under his own name so as NOT to be misunderstood. Most of the ancient philosophers considered that their principles were secrets not to be generally published; in fact, some, such as the Pythagoreans, required an oath of secrecy.
4. ^ The name Heraclitus Scotinus was used earlier by Livy in Book 23 Chapter 39 as belonging to an emissary sent to Hannibal, which was after the time of the philosopher. It is tempting to presume a usage deriving from the philosopher and descending to the emissary but there is no evidence of that.
5. ^ Many writers of what the classicists call "handbooks" are not aware of the antiquity and meanings of these terms. For example, Kenny, Sir Anthony (1998). A Brief History of Western Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, page 18. ISBN 0-631-20132-7. calls the laughing of Democritus "late" and ascribes it to feasting. For a scholarly presentation the reader is referred to Seneca, Lucius Annaeus; John M. Cooper & J.F. Procopé (translators) (1995). Moral and Political Essays. Cambridge University Press, page 50 note 17. ISBN 0521348188. The brief presentation above is based on quotes of ancient authors given there.
6. ^ III.20.53
7. ^ On Oratory II.235.
8. ^ Letters ostensibly of Hippocrates but of date and authorship unknown. There is a chance that they did somehow descend from Hippocrates or were written from memory by some or one of his students and associates. They must have a source and the least likely explanation is that they are a Hellenstic fabrication, as they are among medical texts and not part of myth. Letters 13, 15, 16 and 17 concern Democritus. Their contents are discussed in Temkin, Oswei (1991). Hippocrates in a World of Pagans and Christians. Baltimore: Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, pages 67-70. ISBN 0801851297.
9. ^ Satire X. The translation is from Juvenal; Sidney George Owen (translator) (1903). Thirteen Satires of Juvenal. London: Methuen & Co., page 61.
10. ^ Montaigne, Michel de. Of Democritus and Heraclitus. The Essays of Michel de Montaigne. www.gutenberg.org.
11. ^ Levenson, Jay, editor; Daniel J. Boorstein (Introduction) (1992). Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press, page 229. ISBN 0300051670.
12. ^ IX, 5-6.
13. ^ De Divinationibus II 132-133.
14. ^ Serbati, Antonio Rosmini (1888). Psychology. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., page 27. The Macrobian passage is Macrobius. Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis, I 14.20.
15. ^ Kahn, Charles (1979). The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: Fragments with Translation and Commentary. London: Cambridge University Press, pages 1 – 23. ISBN 0-521-28645-X.
16. ^ For example, Charles Kahn referenced in a previous footnote begins by asserting "The details of Heraclitus' life are almost completely unknown", followed by a number of pages of detail. He gives an overview of the some of the scholarship on Heraclitus but descends to personal invective in support of unsubstantiated speculation: "The 'Life' ... is a tissue of Hellenistic anecdotes, most of them obviously fabricated ... the unusually disgusting report of his final illness and death reveal a malicious pleasure .... Such stories may reflect no more than the contempt for his fellow-citizens." While these statements reflect the values and views of Kahn, they must not be taken as an objective account of antiquity.
17. ^ Book IX, 1. The Greek is a form of the verb, "to acme", according to which English scholars refer to the acme, meaning floruit.
18. ^ Kirk, G.S. Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments London: Cambridge University Press, 1954. ISBN 0-521-05245-9
19. ^ Laertius, Diogenes. The Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1965
20. ^ Lavine, T. Z. (March 1984). "Shadow and Substance - Plato's Sources: The Pre-Socratics", From Socrates to Satire: The Philosophic Quest. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 24. ISBN 0-553-25161-9.
21. ^ E.g. Christoph Harbsmeier, Science and civilisation in China, vol. VII:1 (Cambridge UP, 1998), p. 258; Graham Parkes, Heidegger and Asian thought (U of Hawaii P, 1987), p. 140; Jonathan R. Herman, I and Tao: Martin Buber's Encounter with Chuang Tzu (SUNY Press, 1996), p. 95.
22. ^ Kahn, Charles H.; "The Art and Thought of Heraclitus;" Introduction.
23. ^ Kahn, Charles H.; "The Art and Thought of Heraclitus;" Introduction.
24. ^ Aristotle; Nicomachean Ethics; Book VIII, Chapter 1.
25. ^ Aristotle; Eudemian Ethics; Book VII, Chapter 1.
26. ^ Origen; Contra Celsus; Book VI, Chapter 42.
27. ^ Hippolytus of Rome; Refutation of All Heresies; Book 9, Chapter 4: "An Account of the System of Heraclitus".
28. ^ Kahn, Charles H.; "The Art and Thought of Heraclitus;" Introduction.
29. ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich; The Twilight of the Idols; "Reason in Philosophy;" section 2.
30. ^ Heidegger, Martin. Heraklit. Gesamtausgabe, vol. 55. Frankfurt/Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1979.
31. ^ Popper, Karl, The Open Society and Its Enemies: Vol. 1 The Spell of Plato London: Routledge Classics, 1965.
2. ^ De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, Chapter 2, Section 15.
3. ^ Compare Plato's not writing anything under his own name so as NOT to be misunderstood. Most of the ancient philosophers considered that their principles were secrets not to be generally published; in fact, some, such as the Pythagoreans, required an oath of secrecy.
4. ^ The name Heraclitus Scotinus was used earlier by Livy in Book 23 Chapter 39 as belonging to an emissary sent to Hannibal, which was after the time of the philosopher. It is tempting to presume a usage deriving from the philosopher and descending to the emissary but there is no evidence of that.
5. ^ Many writers of what the classicists call "handbooks" are not aware of the antiquity and meanings of these terms. For example, Kenny, Sir Anthony (1998). A Brief History of Western Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, page 18. ISBN 0-631-20132-7. calls the laughing of Democritus "late" and ascribes it to feasting. For a scholarly presentation the reader is referred to Seneca, Lucius Annaeus; John M. Cooper & J.F. Procopé (translators) (1995). Moral and Political Essays. Cambridge University Press, page 50 note 17. ISBN 0521348188. The brief presentation above is based on quotes of ancient authors given there.
6. ^ III.20.53
7. ^ On Oratory II.235.
8. ^ Letters ostensibly of Hippocrates but of date and authorship unknown. There is a chance that they did somehow descend from Hippocrates or were written from memory by some or one of his students and associates. They must have a source and the least likely explanation is that they are a Hellenstic fabrication, as they are among medical texts and not part of myth. Letters 13, 15, 16 and 17 concern Democritus. Their contents are discussed in Temkin, Oswei (1991). Hippocrates in a World of Pagans and Christians. Baltimore: Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, pages 67-70. ISBN 0801851297.
9. ^ Satire X. The translation is from Juvenal; Sidney George Owen (translator) (1903). Thirteen Satires of Juvenal. London: Methuen & Co., page 61.
10. ^ Montaigne, Michel de. Of Democritus and Heraclitus. The Essays of Michel de Montaigne. www.gutenberg.org.
11. ^ Levenson, Jay, editor; Daniel J. Boorstein (Introduction) (1992). Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press, page 229. ISBN 0300051670.
12. ^ IX, 5-6.
13. ^ De Divinationibus II 132-133.
14. ^ Serbati, Antonio Rosmini (1888). Psychology. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., page 27. The Macrobian passage is Macrobius. Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis, I 14.20.
15. ^ Kahn, Charles (1979). The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: Fragments with Translation and Commentary. London: Cambridge University Press, pages 1 – 23. ISBN 0-521-28645-X.
16. ^ For example, Charles Kahn referenced in a previous footnote begins by asserting "The details of Heraclitus' life are almost completely unknown", followed by a number of pages of detail. He gives an overview of the some of the scholarship on Heraclitus but descends to personal invective in support of unsubstantiated speculation: "The 'Life' ... is a tissue of Hellenistic anecdotes, most of them obviously fabricated ... the unusually disgusting report of his final illness and death reveal a malicious pleasure .... Such stories may reflect no more than the contempt for his fellow-citizens." While these statements reflect the values and views of Kahn, they must not be taken as an objective account of antiquity.
17. ^ Book IX, 1. The Greek is a form of the verb, "to acme", according to which English scholars refer to the acme, meaning floruit.
18. ^ Kirk, G.S. Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments London: Cambridge University Press, 1954. ISBN 0-521-05245-9
19. ^ Laertius, Diogenes. The Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1965
20. ^ Lavine, T. Z. (March 1984). "Shadow and Substance - Plato's Sources: The Pre-Socratics", From Socrates to Satire: The Philosophic Quest. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 24. ISBN 0-553-25161-9.
21. ^ E.g. Christoph Harbsmeier, Science and civilisation in China, vol. VII:1 (Cambridge UP, 1998), p. 258; Graham Parkes, Heidegger and Asian thought (U of Hawaii P, 1987), p. 140; Jonathan R. Herman, I and Tao: Martin Buber's Encounter with Chuang Tzu (SUNY Press, 1996), p. 95.
22. ^ Kahn, Charles H.; "The Art and Thought of Heraclitus;" Introduction.
23. ^ Kahn, Charles H.; "The Art and Thought of Heraclitus;" Introduction.
24. ^ Aristotle; Nicomachean Ethics; Book VIII, Chapter 1.
25. ^ Aristotle; Eudemian Ethics; Book VII, Chapter 1.
26. ^ Origen; Contra Celsus; Book VI, Chapter 42.
27. ^ Hippolytus of Rome; Refutation of All Heresies; Book 9, Chapter 4: "An Account of the System of Heraclitus".
28. ^ Kahn, Charles H.; "The Art and Thought of Heraclitus;" Introduction.
29. ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich; The Twilight of the Idols; "Reason in Philosophy;" section 2.
30. ^ Heidegger, Martin. Heraklit. Gesamtausgabe, vol. 55. Frankfurt/Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1979.
31. ^ Popper, Karl, The Open Society and Its Enemies: Vol. 1 The Spell of Plato London: Routledge Classics, 1965.
Bibliography
- Bakalis, Nikolaos (2005). Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics: Analysis and Fragments. Trafford Publishing, pages 26-45 under Heraclitus. ISBN 1-4120-4843-5.
- Barnes, Jonathan (1982). The Presocratic Philosophers [Revised Edition]. London & New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 0-415-05079-0.
- Burnet, John (2003). Early Greek Philosophy. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-2826-1. First published in 1892 this book has had dozens of editions and has been used as a textbook for decades. The first edition is downloadable from Google Books for free at http://books.google.com/books?id=LQYrAAAAMAAJ&dq=Early+Greek+philosophy&as_brr=3 and the text is also available on the Internet (follow the Wikipedia author link).
- Davenport, Guy (translator) (1979). Herakleitos and Diogenes. Bolinas: Grey Fox Press. ISBN 0-912516-36-4. Complete fragments of Heraclitus in English.
-
id="CITEREFHeideggerFinkSeibert (translator)1993">Heidegger, Martin; Eugen Fink & Charles H. Seibert (translator) (1993), Heraclitus Seminar, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, ISBN 0-8101-1067-9. Transcript of seminar in which two German philosophers analyze and discuss Heraclitus' texts.
-
id="CITEREFHeraclitusHaxton (translator)Hillman (Forward)2001">Heraclitus; Brooks Haxton (translator) & James Hillman (Forward) (2001), Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus, New York: Viking (The Penguin Group, Penguin Putnam, Inc.), ISBN 0-670-89195-9. Parallel Greek & English.
- Laertius, Diogenes. Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers in Ten Books. Book IX, Chapter 1, Heraclitus.
- Lavine, T.Z. (1984). From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest. New York, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. (Bantam Books), Chapter 2: Shadow and Substance; Section: Plato's Sources: The Pre-SocraticPhilosophers: Heraclitus and Parmenides. ISBN 0-553-25161-9.
- Robinson, T.M. (1987). Heraclitus: Fragments: A Text and Translation with a Commentary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-6913-4.
- Wright, M.R. (1985). The Presocratics: The main Fragments in Greek with Inroduction, Commentary and Appendix Containing Text and Translation of Aristotle on the Presocratics. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 0-86292-079-5.
See also
External links
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id="CITEREFBearden2002">Bearden, Thomas E. (2002), "Appendix III: A conditional Criterion for Identity, Leading to a Fourth Law of Logic", Aids: Biological Warfare, Cheniere Press, ISBN 0972514651. A modern physicist looks at the problem of change as expressed by the law of identity of Aristotle and the flux of Heraclitus and formulates a relativistic solution. A basic knowledge of Symbolic logic and the concept of spacetime is required but advanced mathematics is not necessary.
- Elpenor. Heraclitus: The Word is Common (html). The Greek Word: Three Millenia of Greek Literature. Elpenor. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. Heraclitus bilingual anthology from DK in Greek and English, side by side, the translations being provided by the organization, Elpenor.
- Graham, Daniel W. (2006). Heraclitus (html). The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The editors. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
- Harris, William, translator (1994). Heraclitus: The Complete Fragments: Translation and Commentary and The Greek Text (pdf). Humanities and the Liberal Arts: Greek Language and Literature: Text and Commentary. Middlebury College. Retrieved on 2007-10-09. Greek and English with DK numbers and commentary.
- Heraclitus the Obscure: The Father of the Doctrine of Flux and the Unity of Opposites (html). Archimedes' Laboratory. Retrieved on 2007-11-09. Text and selected aphorisms in Greek, English, Italian and French.
- Hooker, Richard (1996). Heraclitus (html). World Civilizations: An Internet Classroom and Anthology: Greek Philosophy. Washington State University. Retrieved on 2007-10-11. Selected fragments translated by Hooker.
- Hoyt, Randy (2002). The Fragments of Heraclitus (html). Retrieved on 2007-10-09. The fragments also cited in DK in Greek (Unicode) with the English translations of John Burnet (see Biliography).
- Knierim, Thomas (2007). Heraclitus:[Ephesus, around 500 BC] (html). thebigview.com. Essay on the flux and fire philosophy of Heraclitus.
- Lancereau, M. Daniel; M. Samuel Béreau (2007). Heraclitus (html/pdf). Philoctetes: ΦΙΛΟΚΤΗΤΗΣ. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. Site with links to pdf's containing the fragments of DK in Greek (Unicode) with the English translations of John Burnet (see Biliography) and translations into French, either in parallel columns or interlinear, with links on the lexical items to Perseus dictionaries. Includes also Heraclitus article from Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.
- Stamatellos, Giannis. Heraclitus of Ephesus: Life and Work (html). Retrieved on 2007-10-12.
- Trix. Heraclitus' Epistemological Views (html). sym•pos•i•a: σψμποσια: the online philosophy journal. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
Persondata NAME Heraclitus ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heraclitus the Ephesian; Heraclitus of Ephebes; Heraclitus the Obscure; Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος - Herákleitos ho Ephésios SHORT DESCRIPTION Greek philosopher DATE OF BIRTH 535 BC PLACE OF BIRTH Ephebes, Asia Minor DATE OF DEATH 475 BC PLACE OF DEATH This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Europe, the spread of Christianity through the Roman world marked the end of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy.
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Politics
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..... Click the link for more information.Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science, traditionally including cosmology and ontology. It is also concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of being and the world.
..... Click the link for more information.Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature, methods, limitations, and validity of knowledge and belief.
The term "epistemology" is based on the Greek words "
..... Click the link for more information.Ethics (via Latin ethica from the Ancient Greek ἠθική [φιλοσοφία]
..... Click the link for more information.Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious
..... Click the link for more information.Logos (Greek λόγος
..... Click the link for more information.Parmenides of Elea (Greek: Παρμενίδης ο Ἐλεάτης
..... Click the link for more information.PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on.
..... Click the link for more information.Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.
..... Click the link for more information.Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (IPA: [ˈgeɔʁk ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈheːgəl]
..... Click the link for more information.Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) (IPA: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvilhelm ˈniːtʃə]) was a nineteenth-century German philosopher.
..... Click the link for more information.Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) (pronounced [ˈmaʀ.tɪn ˈhaɪ.də.gɐ]) was a highly influential German philosopher. His best known work is Being and Time (1927).
..... Click the link for more information.Alfred North Whitehead, OM (February 15 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, England – December 30 1947, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.) was an English-born mathematician who became a philosopher.
..... Click the link for more information.Karl Raimund Popper, CH, FRS, FBA (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994) was an Austrian and British[1] philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics.
..... Click the link for more information.Ancient Greek refers to the second stage in the history of the Greek language[1] as it existed during the Archaic (9th–6th centuries BC) and Classical (5th–4th centuries BC) periods in Greece.
..... Click the link for more information.6th century BC - 5th century BC
560s BC 550s BC 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC 510s BC 500s BC
539 BC 538 BC 537 BC 536 BC 535 BC
534 BC 533 BC 532 BC 531 BC 530 BC
- - State leaders - Sovereign states
-Events and trends
..... Click the link for more information.5th century BC - 4th century BC
500s BC 490s BC 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC
478 BC 477 BC 476 BC - 475 BC - 474 BC 473 BC 472 BC
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State leaders - Sovereign states
..... Click the link for more information.The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously, but expounding knowledge developed earlier. The popularity of the term originates with Hermann Diels' work Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (The Fragments of the Pre-Socratics
..... Click the link for more information.Ionia]] Parameter not given Error...
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..... Click the link for more information.Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).
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..... Click the link for more information.Timon, also known as Timon of Phlius (ca. 320-230 BC), was a Greek sceptic philosopher and satirical poet, a pupil of Stilpo the Megarian and Pyrrho of Elis.Life and writings
..... Click the link for more information.Diogenes Laërtius (Greek: Διογένης Λαέρτιος, Diogénes Laértios
..... Click the link for more information.Marcus Tullius Cicero
Cicero around age 60, from an ancient marble bust
Born: January 3, 106 BC
Arpinum, Italy
Died: December 7, 43 BC
Formia, Italy
Occupation: Politician, lawyer, orator and philosopher
Nationality: Ancient Roman
..... Click the link for more information.Diogenes Laërtius (Greek: Διογένης Λαέρτιος, Diogénes Laértios
..... Click the link for more information.Theophrastus (Greek: Θεόφραστος; 370 — about 285 BC), a native of Eressos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school.
..... Click the link for more information.Melancholia (Greek μελανχολία), in contemporary usage, is a mood disorder of non-specific depression, characterized by low levels of enthusiasm and low levels of eagerness for activity.
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id="CITEREFHeraclitusHaxton (translator)Hillman (Forward)2001">Heraclitus; Brooks Haxton (translator) & James Hillman (Forward) (2001), Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus, New York: Viking (The Penguin Group, Penguin Putnam, Inc.), ISBN 0-670-89195-9. Parallel Greek & English.
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Herod_Archelaus
