HERACLITUS: BIOGRAPHY, PHILOSOPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - PHILOSOPHY - 2024

Heraclitus of Ephesus (535 to 475 BC) was a pre-Socratic philosopher whose contributions to philosophy and science represented an important precedent that would give rise to the most important philosophical thought of Ancient Greece: the Socratic.

He was a man of self-taught training, so he is not told within any school or stream of philosophical or proto-philosophical thought of the time. Native to the city of Ephesus, he was considered one of the pioneers in exploring the human unconscious in relation to nature.

Its main postulates focused on the movement and constant change of all the elements and phenomena present, as well as on the duality and the confrontation of the opposite as part of a universal balance.

Like the School of Milesia, with Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, Heraclitus also defined a primordial and original element for the material and existent: fire, also considered part of the human soul.

Biography

Heraclitus was born in 535 BC in Ephesus, a colony of Greece located where Turkey is today.

Although not much information is known about this Greek philosopher, there are historical records that indicate that Heraclitus was part of a noble family that was privileged and belonged to the aristocracy of the time.

In fact, in his family the assignment of the position of priest was hereditary; reflection that they were wealthy and wealthy.

Despite the prominence that the Heraclitus family had, this philosopher was characterized from an early age by being introverted and without any taste for public life.

Strong character

It is said that Heraclitus went against both the tyrants who had control of Ephesus in the past, and the new representatives linked to democracy who were beginning to have preponderance at the time.

This little sympathy for both approaches earned him strong criticism, which is why he spent a good part of his life isolated from others, dedicated to understanding the why of things.

According to the records found, it can be said that Heraclitus had a strong character; diverse sources indicate that it used to be strict, little patient and sarcastic. In addition, some historians claim that he expressed a certain contempt for ordinary citizens, which may have been a consequence of his aristocratic origin.

These characteristics of his personality also influenced him to prefer to isolate himself from the criticism he received during his life and avoid being linked to aspects related to the arts and religion.

Expulsion of Hermodoro

Another event that is said to have reaffirmed his contempt for his fellow men in Ephesus and his decision to isolate himself from society was that his friend Hermodorus, also a philosopher and a native of Greece, was banished from that city, which caused Heraclitus much anger and disagreement.

To study thought thoroughly and to create what would later become Heraclitus' theories, he went to live in the mountains, where he was almost totally isolated from society.

Heraclitus is believed to have died in a year around 470 BC. Much of his philosophy has transcended modern times thanks to references made by the writer Diógenes Laercio, born in Greece.

Philosophy (thought)

On the thought of Heraclitus, there are approaches that indicate that he did not write any book as such, but that all the teachings he taught were oral.

Based on this scenario, it is believed that his disciples were the ones who translated the words of Heraclitus into the letters. This fact makes it very difficult to confirm his authorship of some sentences and sentences.

However, there are records that indicate that part of his thinking went against the system - until then considered as the natural one - formed and led by the aristocracy, and in favor of the laws created and established through the State, a representative body.

In general, it can be said that the philosophy of Heraclitus is based on three concepts: theós, lógos and pỳr. The first term refers to that which is divine.

For its part, logos is related to what Heraclitus called the “becoming” of the universe, as well as everything that is part of the philosophical discourse in relation to reason and thought.

The latter is the most important element of Heraclitus' philosophy, pỳr, which corresponds to the creative fire of all that exists. This term is Heraclitus' interpretation of the concept of arche.

Search for the opposite

Heraclitus established that the world was in constant and perennial change, and that in the middle of this transformation process each element becomes its opposite entity.

In addition, the fact of constant change and, therefore, periodic renewal, implies that the same scenarios cannot be experienced several times. In other words, it will never be possible for a place to remain the same, because the things of that place are constantly being transformed.

As for the human being, Heraclitus stipulated that man is in constant struggle given these changes and transformations that are taking place all the time.

As a consequence of this perennial alternation between opposite characters, the concept of quality associated with a human characteristic becomes somewhat relative.

At the same time, in the midst of this struggle, human beings have the perfect setting to discover their own identity, given that they transform themselves over and over into opposite things.

According to Heraclitus, this process is important in that it constitutes the engine through which the world and things evolve and are transformed. This view was considered contrary to what was taken for granted at that time.

Arjé's concept

As mentioned above, one of the most relevant points of the philosophy of Heraclitus is that he came to consider fire as the main and essential element of all things.

The arche, also known as arché or arque, is the concept that was had in times of ancient Greece to refer to the beginning of the known universe; it was the explanation given about the origin of all things.

Heraclitus considered that all the changes that are generated in nature were triggered by fire.

According to Heraclitus, all things that exist are born through fire, following the order of fire, air, water and earth. Likewise, it indicated that things perished in the same way, but in an inverse sense; that is to say: earth, water, air and fire.

In short, for Heraclitus, fire was the beginning and the end of all things that were part of nature, it was even considered the origin of the soul. According to this philosopher, this fire is born as a consequence of a specific need.

Plays

According to the records obtained, Heraclitus wrote a single work called De la Naturaleza. It is worth noting that that same title used to have the works that dealt with philosophical issues in Ancient Greece.

As mentioned above, there is no certainty as to whether Heraclitus 'book was really conceived by him as such or whether it was a compilation later made by his disciples, a compilation that included Heraclitus' notions and descriptions on various subjects.

In any case, Diogenes Laertius was the Greek writer who attributed the book Of Nature to Heraclitus. This book is divided into three chapters: the first of these talks about cosmology, the second focuses on the political realm, and the third chapter deals with the theological subject.

Use of aphorisms

The structure of his only work is made up of more than one hundred sentences, without direct connection to each other. Heraclitus was characterized by using aphorisms as a way of expressing his thought.

The aphorisms are those sentences that have the characteristic of being blunt and short, and that are used to describe concepts that are considered truths in a specific field.

It is said that the fact that he used aphorisms to make his ideas known is in line with the characteristics that have been known about this character, since Heraclitus was characterized by being somewhat enigmatic, as well as introspective and very severe.

All these peculiarities earned him the nickname of "the dark one", and are consistent with the meaning of the fragments of him that have been found.

Most outstanding phrases

As explained before, the work of Heraclitus is made up of specific phrases and sentences. Below we will mention some of the most emblematic:

-Nothing resists except change.

-Every day the sun is a new element.

-It is not possible to step on the same river twice, because it is not the same river and it is not the same man.

-God is winter and summer, satiety and hunger, war and peace, day and night.

-Everything changes; hence, nothing is.

-Those who enter the same river, the waters that will cover them are different.

-By not having hope it is possible to find the unexpected.

-The laws of man are fed by divine law.

-God sees everything good and just; it is men who have created the just and the unjust.

- Those who look for gold dig a lot and find nothing.

-Sickness makes health more pleasant; hunger makes satiety more pleasant; and fatigue makes rest more pleasant.

-The origin and the end are confused in a circle.

-The soul that is dry is the wisest and, therefore, the best.

-It is wise people to pay attention not to me, but to the logos (the word), and thus understand that each and every one of the things is actually one.

Main contributions

Fire as a primary element

Just as the philosophers of the School of Milesia developed in their works the existence of a natural element that serves as the essence and origin of everything that exists, Heraclitus continued this line of thought and attributed this quality to fire.

Heraclitus approached fire as a central element that was never extinguished, whose natural movements allowed it a non-static existence, and that was in step with the rest of the natural mobility of the Universe.

Fire would not be present only on earth, but would also be part of the human soul.

The mobility of the existing Universe

For Heraclitus, all the phenomena of nature were part of a state of constant movement and change. Nothing is inert, nor does it remain inert or last forever. It is movement and the capacity for change that allows universal balance.

Heraclitus is credited with some famous metaphorical phrases that expose this thought: "No one bathes twice in the same river." In this way, the philosopher manages to expose the changing character not only of nature, but also of man.

In the same way, Heraclitus once exhibited “Everything flows”, giving the universe a certain arbitrariness regarding its actions, but never a static nature.

Duality and opposition

Heraclitus considered that the changing phenomena of nature and man were the result of contradictions and oppositions in reality. His thinking developed that it was not possible to experience a state if its counterpart was not known or previously experienced.

Everything is composed of its opposite, and at some point it passes from one to another. To develop this point, Heraclitus used the metaphor of a path that goes up and another that goes down, which in the end are nothing but the same path.

Life gives way to death, health to disease; a man cannot know what it is to be healthy if he has never been sick.

The principle of causality

During his life, Heraclitus developed in his thought the search for causality; What is the cause of every physical or natural phenomenon or action? The philosopher stated that everything that happens has a cause, and that nothing can be the cause of itself.

If you continue to explore retrospectively, at some point you will arrive at an initial cause, which Heraclitus named as God. Under this theological foundation, Heraclitus also justified the natural order of things.

Logos

In his work Heraclitus developed his perception of the Logos. The word, the reflection, the reason. These were the attributes that Heraclitus printed on the Logos when he asked that not only the word that he professed be heard, but the Logos.

He considered that the Logos was present, but it could be made incomprehensible to men.

Heraclitus invited reasoning as part of that universal scheme that determined that, although everything flowed, it also followed a specific cosmic order, and the Logos was part of that path to be traveled.

The Logos, then, facilitated the relationships between the natural elements, the well-being of the soul, the nature of the divine, etc.

First conceptions of the State

In his work, Heraclitus began to sketch what would be an ideal or functional state. However, by then, social conditions were still very precarious, making the classification process difficult in a society.

At that time in Greece, the number of people who were considered citizens was minimal, and children, women and slaves were excluded. It is said that Heraclitus came from an aristocratic background, which gave him a certain social bias when developing these concepts.

However, he did not delve much and, instead, exposed particular conceptions of war and the power of one man over another.

Conception about war and self-knowledge

Heraclitus considered, philosophically and politically, war as a necessary phenomenon to give continuity to the natural cosmic order, through which other concepts raised by him, such as duality and opposition, were evidenced.

The clash of opposing positions that only give way to a new state or event, also allowed to determine the position of each man in this new order and therefore, to throw a new perspective on the power and the structure that was beginning to weave. below this.

This type of conflict allowed man to know himself and to know if he had the attributes of a superior being, or those that would condemn him to baseness (as in the case of slaves).

From this, Heraclitus began to develop the first ethical ideals of man, as behaviors necessary for the continuity of individual life and in society, which would later be taken and expanded by a large number of later philosophers, giving ethics its own field of study and reflection.

References

1. Barnes, J. (1982). The Presocratic Philosophers. New York: Routledge.
2. Burnet, J. (1920). Early Greek Philosophy. London: A & C Black.
3. Harris, W. (nd). Heraclitus The Complete Fragments. Middlebury College.
4. Osborne, R., & Edney, R. (2005). Philosophy for beginners. Buenos Aires: It was Nascent.
5. Taylor, CC (1997). From the Beginning to Plato. London: Routledge.