Heraclitus

HERACLITUS (c. B.c.), Greek philosopher, was born at Ephesus of distinguished parentage. Of his early life we know nothing except perhaps that he declined the nominal position of Basileus. (See ARCHON.) From his lonely life, from the extreme profundity of his philosophy and from his contempt for mankind he was called the "Dark Philosopher" in contrast to Democritus, the "Laughing Philosopher." Heraclitus is in a sense the founder of metaphysics. Starting from the physical standpoint of the Ionian school, he accepted their idea of the unity of nature, hut denied their theory of being. For him, all things are one, and this one is also the many, the "opposite tension" of the opposites constituting the unity of the one. Hot and cold good and evil, night and day, etc., are the same in the sense that they are inseparable halves of one and the same thing. This primary substance is fire. In nature the sole actuality is change. All things are becoming, but they appear to remain the same, for while fire (of which even the soul is made) is transformed into the other elements, these also are trans formed into fire. This rhythm of events and order in change is the reason or logos of the universe. There is no evidence to show that Heraclitus believed in a general conflagration. Knowledge consists in comprehending the all-pervading harmony as embodied in the manifold of perception. Virtue consists in the subordination of the individual to the laws of this harmony as the universal rea son wherein alone true freedom is to be found. "The law of things is a law of Reason Universal; but most men live as though they had a wisdom of their own." Ethics here stands to sociology in a close relation.

Though much popular theology pervades his ethical teaching, he attacks the ceremonies of popular religion. After his death, the chief disciple of Heraclitus' teaching was Cratylus.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The fragments and the spurious letters have been Bibliography.—The fragments and the spurious letters have been edited by I. Bywater, Heracliti Ephesii reliquiae (Oxford, 1877) ; and Diets, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (4th ed., 1922). Eng. trans. of Bywater's edition by G. T. W. Patrick (Baltimore, 1889) and in Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy (3rd ed., 1920). See F. Lassalle, Die Philosophie Herakleitos' des Dunklen (2nd ed., 1892), strongly dom inated by modern Hegelianism ; P. Schuster, Heraklit von Ephesus (Leipzig, 1873) ; J. Bernays, Die heraklitischen Briefe (Berlin, 1869) ; T. Gomperz, Zu Heraclits Lehre and den Uberresten seines Werkes (Vienna, 1887), and Greek Thinkers (Eng. trans. vol. i., 1901) ; E. Pfleiderer, Die Philosophic des Heraklitus (Berlin, 1886) ; G. T. Schafer, Die Philosophic des Heraklit (Leipzig, 1902) ; Wolfgang Schultz, Studien zur antiken Kultur, i.; Pythagoras and Heraklit (Leipzig, 1905) ; O. Spengler, Heraklit. Eine Studie fiber den energet ischen Grundgedanken seiner Philosophic (Halle, 1904) ; A. Brieger, "Die Grundziige der heraklitischen Physik" in Hermes, xxxix. (1904) 182-223 ; P. Bise, La Politique d'Heraclite and E. Weerts, Heraklit U. Herakliteer (1926) . Full bibliography in i)berweg: Grund. der gesch. der Phil. pt. I. (1926) . See also articles IONIAN ScHooL OF PHILOSOPHY and Locos.