Heraclitus (535 - 475) BCE
A weeping philosopher
The first of these to invent a theory which is still influential was Heraclitus, who flourished about 500 B.C. Of his life very little is known, except that he was an aristocratic citizen of Ephesus. One sure way to live in philosophical memory is to issue striking remarks that are obscure or ambiguous – or better still a mixture of both. Heraclitus is an example. Known as ‘the Obscure’, ‘the Dark’ and ‘the Riddler.' His family were part of the city’s ruling elite. He gave his hereditary political office of ‘Basileus’ to a brother, and later in life went to live a rustic hermit’s life, though he returned to the city when he fell ill, and died at about the age of sixty.
He was chiefly famous in antiquity for his doctrine that everything is in a state of flux, but this, as we shall see, is only one aspect of his metaphysics.
Some people said, Heraclitus was confident person, some said that Heraclitus was arrogant person. He said that Pythagoras had no much knowledge. Heraclitus said that Homer was bad thinker. It is difficult to read Heraclitus. He hated mob. He had lived in the forest and ate grass. Heraclitus don't care of the world.
He wrote dark (evil) book. he have written in a consciously oracular style.
Heraclitus was weeping philosopher. Heraclitus was the dark. why was he called the dark ? The reason is that he was in depression, melancholy. he had a psychology illness.
Heraclitus is recognised as the father of dialectic.
doctrine
| The death of fire is air and the death of air is birth of water. |
Heraclitus, though an Ionian, was not in the scientific tradition of the Milesians. He was a mystic, but of a peculiar kind. He regarded Fire as the fundamental substance; everything, like flame in a fire, is born by the death of something else. "Mortals are immortals, and immortals are mortals, the one living the other's death and dying the other's life." There is unity in the world, but it is a unity formed by the combination of opposites. "All things come out of the one, and the one out of all things"
Many commentators see Heraclitus as conforming to the tradition of the earlier Ionians in being a material monist, that is, as holding the view that there is a single underlying material arche. As we saw, his predecessors had successively nominated water, the infinite and air; he nominated fire. ‘The cosmos, which is the same for all, was not made by gods or men, but it was ever, is now, and ever shall be, an ever-living fire, parts of it kindling, and parts of it going out … fire is lack and abundance.
Heraclitus believes in war. "War," he says, "is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bond and some free." "We must know that war is common to all and strife is justice, and that all things come into being and pass away through strife."
He regards the soul as a mixture of fire and water, the fire being noble and the water ignoble. The soul that has most fire he calls "dry." "The dry soul is the wisest and best." "It is pleasure to souls to become moist." "A man, when he gets drunk, is led by a beardless lad, tripping, knowing not where he steps, having his soul moist." "It is death to souls to become water." "It is hard to fight with one's heart's desire. Whatever it wishes to get, it purchases at the cost of soul." "It is not good for men to get all that they wish to get." One may say that Heraclitus values power obtained through self-mastery, and despises the passions that distract men from their central ambitions.
The attitude of Heraclitus to the religions of his time, at any rate the Bacchic religion, is largely hostile, but not with the hostility of a scientific rationalist. He has his own religion, and in part interprets current theology to fit his doctrine, in part rejects it with considerable scorn. He says, for example: "The mysteries practised among men are unholy mysteries." This suggests that he had in mind possible mysteries that would not be "unholy," but would be quite different from those that existed. . He would have been a religious reformer, if he had not been too scornful of the vulgar to engage in propaganda.
Heraclitus repeatedly speaks of "God" as distinct from "the gods." "The way of man has no wisdom, but that of God has. Man is called a baby by God, even as a child by a man. The wisest man is an ape compared to God, just as the most beautiful ape is ugly compared to man." God, no doubt, is the embodiment of cosmic justice.
The metaphysics of Heraclitus, like that of Anaximander, is dominated by a conception of cosmic justice, which prevents the strife of opposites from ever issuing in the complete victory of either.
"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 an ever-living Fire, with measures kindling and measures going out."
"The transformations of Fire are, first of all, sea; and half of the sea is earth, half whirlwind." In such a world, perpetual change was to be expected, and perpetual change was what Heraclitus believed in.
Heraclitus said - ''Motion is the existence of thing''
His belief in universal change is commonly supposed to have been expressed in the phrase "all things are flowing "We step and do not step into the same rivers; we are, and are not." "You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you." and "The sun is new every day."
The metaphysics of Heraclitus are sufficiently dynamic to satisfy the most hustling of moderns:
"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 an ever-living Fire, with measures kindling and measures going out."
"The transformations of Fire are, first of all, sea; and half of the sea is earth, half whirlwind."
In such a world, perpetual change was to be expected, and perpetual change was what Heraclitus believed in.
logos – a word used by Greek philosophers in such a variety of ways that it can be taken to mean any and more of ‘account’, ‘theory’, ‘framework’, ‘word’, ‘reason’, ‘significance’, ‘principle’ and as we might say ‘the underlying logic (of something)’. One reasonable reconstruction of Heraclitus’ account is as follows.
In politics he advocated the rule of law – ‘The people must fight for [the city’s] laws as for its walls’ – and a wise choice of rulers. Both pieces of advice are consistent with the idea that there is a cosmic logos (which can be interpreted as saying: the cosmos is governed by universal laws) and that rationality – the rational apprehension of these universal laws – applies as much to ethics and politics as in cosmology. But he was not a protodemocrat;
he had no time for ‘fools’ and ‘the many … the mob’. ‘Most men’s teacher is Hesiod; they are convinced he knew most things – he, a man who could not recognize that day and night are one.’
He had, however, another doctrine on which he set even more store than on the perpetual flux; this was the doctrine of the mingling of opposites. "Men do not know," he says, "how what is at variance agrees with itself. It is an attunement of opposite tensions, like that of the bow and the lyre." His belief in strife is connected with this theory, for in strife opposites combine to produce a motion which is a harmony. There is a unity in the world, but it is a unity resulting from diversity:
The doctrine that everything is in a state of flux is the most famous of the opinions of Heraclitus, and the one most emphasised by his disciples, as described in Plato Theaetetus.
His belief in universal change is commonly supposed to have been expressed in the phrase "all things are flowing," His works, like those of all the philosophers before Plato, are only known through quotations, largely made by Plato or Aristotle for the sake of refutation. Plato and Aristotle agree that Heraclitus taught that "nothing ever is, everything is becoming" Plato, and that "nothing steadfastly is" Aristotle.
Heraclitus seems to have held that it is by the conflict or tension that holds opposites together that existence itself is made possible: ‘Homer was wrong to say, “Would that strife might perish from among gods and men!” He did not see that he was praying for the destruction of the universe, for if his prayer were heard all things would pass away . '' all things come into being and pass away through strife''. '' strife is justice, all things happen according to strife and necessity.’'
Heraclitus himself, for all his belief in change, allowed something everlasting. The conception of eternity (as opposed to endless duration), which comes from Parmenides, is not to be found in Heraclitus, but in his philosophy the central fire never dies: the world "was ever, is now, and ever shall be, an ever-living Fire." But fire is something continually changing, and its permanence is rather that of a process than that of a substance--though this view should not be attributed to Heraclitus.
Heraclitus death is shocked. Heraclitus was filled with water internally and died smeared all over with mud.
