Heraclitus

Abstract

Active around 500 bce, Heraclitus of Ephesus is a universally recognized figure of the so-called Presocratic tradition. Biographical data are scarce and the anecdotes reported by later doxography seem untrustworthy (especially the stories about his death). There are extant over a hundred verbatim fragments from his book, the most extensive remains of written philosophical thought from the early 5th century (about two thousand words) before Empedocles. The collection, dependent on indirect sources that range in the standard edition from Plato to Albertus Magnus, suggests a unique and well-polished work, rich in poetical and rhetorical resources. Heraclitus became famous for the enigmatic qualities of his style and was dubbed “the obscure” (ὁ σκοτεινός). Although the style has been frequently categorized as aphoristic, some fragments show a clear narrative structure. Modern attempts at reconstruction have often been based on the locus classicus in Diogenes Laertius (IX.5) that divided the book into three sections, “On the Universe,” “Political,” and “Theological.” The dominant version of its overall philosophical character stems from the Aristotelian interpretation of Heraclitus as a materialistic and monistic natural philosopher (φυσικóς), upholder of fire as principle, and a cosmologist. Many fragments reveal an intense concern with human affairs, such as knowledge; moral and political praxis (including religious belief and ritual practice); and language. The fundamental notion of λóγος tended to be bypassed silently in antiquity, except for the Stoics, and only came to the interpretive foreground in modern times (its complex philosophical status and meaning, and wide range of application have remained, however, the object of scholarly dispute). Plato attributes to Heraclitus the ontological thesis of universal flux (πάντα ῥεῖ), which, together with the idea of the identity and Unity of Opposites, became a defining characteristic of “Heracliteanism.” The book criticized explicitly the figures of ancient and recent wisdom (such as Homer, Hesiod, Archilochus, Hecateus, Pythagoras, and Xenophanes), but also developed an original epistemological model centered in understanding the unity or oneness of things and their essential nature (φύσις), specially emphasizing the human ψυχή as the knowing subject and moral agent. Although traditionally marginalized, ethics, politics, and religion constitute an important area for current and future scholarship.