The Sibyl, who fervently utters serious, cryptic and muffled voices, penetrates with her voice through a thousand years, possessed by a god. (Fr. 92)
Heraklit left his book in the temple of Artemis, let those who are capable of understanding read it. Heraklit’s work is lost, and only fragments of his philosophy remain, estimated to be about 10-20% of his original writings. English philosopher Bertrand Russell, in his History of Western Philosophy, states that Heraklit is known to us only through quotes from his opponents, who aimed to refute them, so it is no doubt that he was remarkable when he appears great and through the veil of malice spread by his enemies. His philosophy is like the ruins of ancient buildings, from which we try to reconstruct their original appearance and purpose. Due to its contradictions, it is not easy to interpret. Superficial observers should be cautious in swiftly identifying “inconsistencies” in Heraklit’s philosophy, as his thinking moves through sharp oppositions; by enjoying them, one can find an unimaginable harmony within them. antagonism.
Heraklit sees the fundamental material world as a constant movement, a collision of energies of opposing polarities that leads to resolution through conflict. He calls this existence fire, and the process of breaking down and building up the world he calls war. We will quote the excerpts for their meaning and beauty, and refrain from commentary as much as possible, allowing the readers to experience them for themselves.
It should be known that war is universal, that justice is strife, and that everything arises from discord, and that this is how it should be. (Fr. 80)
War is the father of all, the king of all. From it, some are born as gods, others as humans, some are made free, others slaves. (Fr. 53)
This world, the same for all, was not created by any god or any human, but has always been and will always be an eternal living fire, which is kindled and extinguished in measure. (Fr. 30)
Greek cosmogony does not recognize the creation of the world from nothingness. The world came into being through the ordering of chaos. The word cosmos actually means ornament, something beautifully crafted, but also order, harmony. organized state. The world is the same for everyone, but beings differ in their needs and abilities, so they value it differently:
Donkeys would prefer hay over gold.
Pigs bathe in mud, while birds in dust and ashes.
The most beautiful monkey is ugly when compared to the human race: similarly, the wisest person will appear as a monkey before God in wisdom, beauty, and everything else.
The cosmos is composed of substances and energies that are more or less refined, ethereal, or coarse, material. Thus, everything moves, densifying, from fire, through air, to water and earth, and vice versa, evaporating. Everything is in motion and there is no rest.
Fire lives off the death of the earth, air lives off the death of fire; water lives off the death of air, earth lives off the death of water.
This movement is two-way: the path upwards and downwards is one and the same. In other words, the path that leads uphill also leads downhill.
The human soul is at its best when it is “dry”. This is closer to divine fire. But to Heraclitus, it is clear that it is not easy:
For souls, joy or death is to be damp. Joy to them is the fall into life. (Fr. 77a)
Elsewhere he says again:
We live off their death, and they live off our death. (Fr. 77b)
This passage points to ancient teachings about reincarnation. Birth is death for the soul that becomes trapped in the body. The death of the body is the rebirth of the soul in the spiritual world. Such a belief is not unique to the ancient Greeks. Here, one problem arises that is not fully illuminated today, and that is the influence of Egypt on Greek culture. Most interpreters briefly mention how many prominent Greeks were initiated into the “secret mysteries” in Egypt, but nothing more is explored beyond that.
By changing, it rests. (Fr. 84a)
The subject of this sentence is the soul: a person must spiritually progress in order for the soul to come closer to its homeland. And the following passages about the soul captivate with their beauty of expression and depth of meaning:
You will not find the limits of the soul by going. So, let it be known that this translation is original and not a machine-generated text. If you pass through all paths: such a deep logos you have. (Fr. 45)
Man reaches for light at night when his visual sense goes out. The living touches the dead while sleeping, and the awake touches the sleeping. (Fr. 26)
Death is everything we see while awake, and a dream is what we see while sleeping. (Fr. 21)
(After that, surely followed the words: and life, which we see while dead.)
The world of the dead and the living is divided by Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. In this way, the souls of the living forget the otherworldly and see death, which means that they see transience and mortality everywhere around them. Dreaming is a connection with the other side, which represents true life for the soul.
The next passage is one of the most beautiful aphorisms of Heraclitus:
The bow is called life, and death is its work. (Fr. 48)
Using wordplay, a similarity between the expressions for bow (bios) (bow as a weapon) and life (bios), and the contrast between the concepts of life and death, Heraclitus uses the bow as a metaphor for the world. The two forces that strive on opposite sides, the wood and hands, produce movement, life. At the end of the journey, at the goal, inevitable death awaits. The opposition is inherent in all things, and it is through the interplay of these opposing forces that life and death exist. we are united and tension produces harmony:
What is in itself opposite, agrees only with itself, it is the harmony that strives against opposition, as with the bow and the lyre. (Fr. 51)
Heraklit is still known today for two sayings that have become part of general culture, people say them without knowing who their author is.
Everything flows (Panta rhei). This is Aristotle’s attempt to summarize the essence of Heraklit’s philosophy.
You cannot step twice into the same river. The original excerpt actually reads:
Into the same rivers we step and do not step, we are and we are not. (Fr. 49)
Man is not destined to relax and enjoy, but must constantly affirm himself.
Is that so terrible?
The river retains the same name, but the water that flows into it is not the same. Moreover, we are also subject to constant change, “and we are and we are not”.
Like small children who demand security and predictability from their parents, the repetition of the established rhythm they are accustomed to, so do many adults feel fear when confronted with Heraklit’s world in which… as if there is no solid support. However, those who correctly understand Heraclitus know that the result of conflict is always a new harmony, but just like the vibrations of a lyre fade away, even harmony cannot be eternal and soon a new conflict arises, because resting brings no salvation.
A potion separates (settles) if it is not stirred. (Fr. 125)
Man is not destined to leisurely enjoy, but must constantly prove himself. Is that so terrible? Doesn’t it create true people, true opportunities for progress? Heraclitus is for heroism, for a man who is not afraid of challenges. His hero is not today’s athlete who wins in competitions only to indulge in excess when his career is over. The hero matures through struggle, becomes better, and approaches the gods, setting an example for others. No one can give knowledge to a man in the form of ready-made formulas, like pills. Everyone must fight for their own progress, both in society and in knowledge. That is Heraclitus’ Way. That is why his philosophy is passionate, deeply felt, saturated with his own experiences. the mind and at the same time purified by sharp reason. From Heraclitus, it is not the hypertrophied reason, cold and separate intellect, that speaks, but the whole of human being. It is no coincidence that he calls the mind (logos) fire.
I asked (studied) myself this way. (Fr. 101)
This is how Heraclitus explains his progress, entirely in the style of the Delphic oracle. Heraclitus invites others to follow his path. But his nature is fierce, so he does not spare the people he advises. For most of them, he says:
They are not fit to hear or to speak. (Fr. 19)
In other words, it is not worth wasting time talking to them. Because they do not recognize the truth even when they collide with it, and even when they learn, like parrots, they do not actually understand. And that is why:
Knowledgableness does not teach wisdom,
although
People who love wisdom must be informed about many things. (Fr. 35)
Reconciliation of these contradictory passages gives the third one:
Education is a second Sun to the educated. (Fr. 134)
Eyes and ears are wicked witnesses to people, and those who have barbaric souls.
That’s how much the interpreters who quote only one saying miss the mark, not seeking completion in contradiction!
And they pray to the gods’ statues, as if someone wanted to talk to houses, because they know nothing about the existence of gods and heroes. (Fr. 5)
There is no benefit in worshiping statues, one should ask oneself because man carries everything within himself as potential, one just needs to reject the worthless through life’s trials and purify what is lasting.
Gold diggers turn over a lot of soil, but find little. (Fr. 22)
Heracles’ symbolic speech retains ambiguity and reveals itself to everyone according to their beliefs and abilities. The following passages undoubtedly reveal Heracles as a true philosopher:
Everything that can be seen, heard, and known, that I particularly value. (Fr. 55)
To think rationally is the greatest virtue, and wisdom is to speak and act in accordance with nature, by listening to it. (Fr. 112)
Therefore, one should study nature, using the senses, checking everything With reasonable judgement. In the end, practice comes: to act in accordance with nature, which is both the beginning and the end of the cognitive process. A philosopher must act in accordance with his teachings, he must not stop at knowledge.
The senses themselves are not enough for the knowledge of truth:
Eyes and ears are evil witnesses to humans if they have barbaric souls. (Fr. 107)
Eyes are more reliable witnesses than ears. (Fr. 101)
The truth that one convinces oneself of is more valuable than the truth learned through tradition. This has far-reaching consequences that are not immediately visible. Belief in God based on dogma is meaningless to Heraclitus, as is worshiping statues. The personal insight into the divine being, which each of us carries within ourselves, is a much better path. This places Heraclitus in the tradition of Gnostic sages. But Heraclitus is full of contradictions, so he is simultaneously a Gnostic, mystic, philosopher, and, in his fierce way, an enlightener of the people.
To not go overboard by calling Heraclitus a gloomy person, is confirmed by a passage that could only have been written by him. Great humanist: The people who sleep, they are workers and helpers in cosmic events. (Fr. 75)
The people who sleep are those who do not understand the truth, even though they collide with it every day. But they also participate in the order of the world, and Heracleitus’ contempt, which he sometimes openly shows, should be understood as the anger of a man who futilely tries to open the eyes of people who possess reason but do not know how to use it.
The best ones love one thing above all others, they love eternal glory more than passing things. And the common people only seek to satisfy themselves like cattle. (Fr. 29)
This brings us to Heracleitus’ favorite theme: the exceptional individual. Actually, to the opposition between the masses and the enlightened or, on the other hand, enlightened individual.
One is to me as good as ten thousand, only if they are the best. (Fr. 49)
If there were no Sun, there could be night among the other stars. (Fr. 99)
The exceptional individual shines like the Sun. The Sun is a deity in ancient peoples that gives life. It constantly emits energy from itself. As if it represents divine creative power.
The sun is new every day. (Fr. 6)
An exceptional individual is creative, every day is new. Ordinary people repeat themselves, sticking to what they have learned. Thus, knowledge turns into opinion, divine revelation into dogma, and playful children into faceless bureaucrats.
To think rationally is the greatest virtue, and wisdom is to speak the truth and act according to nature, listening to it.
Heraklit was a recluse, so he didn’t deal too much with politics, but he pondered on the contradiction between tyranny and democracy, which was a burning topic in his time. He doesn’t consider democracy a good social structure if its people are not up to the task: For what is their spirit like? They listen to popular singers and take the common people as their teachers, not knowing that the majority is bad, and there are only a few good ones. (Fr. 104)
For him, a good tyranny is better than a bad democracy. To rule, there should be an enlightened and noble person whom others listen to because he sets a good example in everything: it is a topic that Plato and Confucius have discussed. If a ruler is not up to that ideal, they should be removed. Heraklit convinced an Ephesian tyrant to relinquish power in favor of Hermodorus, a man of exceptional virtues. But when Hermodorus was soon expelled by his fellow citizens, it seemed that something broke within him:
The Ephesians would do right if they all hanged themselves and handed over the city to those unfit, those who expelled Hermodorus, their most valuable man, saying: Let no one be the most valuable among us, and if anyone is, let them be elsewhere and among others. (Fr. 121)
And so he shouts at them:
Your wealth, Ephesians, has not dried up, and thus your wickedness has come to light. (Fr. 125a)
Populism is not to Heraklit’s liking, because it panders to the masses, and it is not in the best interest of people if their every wish is fulfilled. (Fr. 110) Rulers who cater to the masses will also only seek to “satisfy themselves”. In Heraklit’s philosophy, ethics is not separated from politics; on the contrary, only those who are exceptionally moral should engage in politics.
Here is a fragment. men who can be considered political:
People should fight for justice just as they do for their walls. (Fr. 44)
The Greeks lived in city-states, so the walls symbolize boundaries, property, but ultimately also the survival of the people. Therefore, by modernizing this passage, we could say that people should fight for justice just as much as they fight for their survival.
Those who speak with reason should seek support in what is common to all, just as the state relies on the law, and even more firmly. Because to all human laws, one divine law provides nourishment: it extends its power as far as it wants and is sufficient for all, with some left over. (Fr. 114)
For justice will know how to seize and condemn forgers and false witnesses. (Fr. 28)
Heracleitus’ sentences strike like a whip, so it is clear that he could not have been popular among his contemporaries. However, Heracleitus is driven by a strong sense of morality:
The shortest path to glory is to become good. (Fr. 135)
Everything will burn, like fire. To come, to seize and condemn. (Fr. 66)
Because how could a man hide from that which never sets. (Fr. 16)
In the end, let us say that the fragments of Heraclitus should be read again and again, allowing the experience and understanding to mature slowly. Interpretations at the beginning help, but they should never be placed ahead of the original text, which retains its ambiguity and depth. Similarly, one should not “philosophize” about Heraclitus in the sense of a cabinet, theoretical discussion. One should live heracliteanly, without despair, because “The Sun is new every day” – one should simply accept the heroic ethos of self-knowledge and strive to express with every gesture and word what the mind has been purified by fire, and constantly strive further, because “you will not find the soul’s limit by going.”