Heraclitus in his own words and Plato on Heraclitus

(Originally Written August 30, 2006 in History I)

Classics of Philosophy, Louis Pojman

Heraclitus:

The Word (Logos)

1. The Word is forever and forever incomprehensible. The Word is the cause of all things, but man comprehends it as much as they comprehend waking while sleeping.

2. Collection of data is not knowledge. Hesiod, Pythagoras, Xenophanes and Hecataeus were collectors but not knowledgeable.

3. All things are one, despite their appearances, thus sayeth the Word.

The World is Everlasting Fire

4. The world is uncreated and eternal. It is a fluctuating fire.

5. Fire became sea, sea became earth and fire became wind.

6. The substances are exchanges with the fire.

7. Everything that appears different is actually the same.

8. "On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow"

9. All things are in perpetual motion - Plato on Heraclitus

10. Everything is in flux - Plato on Heraclitus

11. Everything comes from and returns to one thing, which is fire.

12. Man does not understand this coming and returning to the fire.

13. Everything is opposites, living and dead exist simultaneously in all beings as one is engaging in proximity to one or the other, but cannot be fully separated from its opposite.

Soul is Fire

14. Souls die, becoming water, water dies, becoming earth, but earth births water and water births soul.

15. "The character of man is his destiny"

16. Human laws spring from divine law and common sense is knowledge of the divine law.

17. God is all opposites just like fire.

18. The Oracle of Delphi is mysterious, neither revealing nor concealing, only showing signs.