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”, “On the State”, “On God”).

Founder of the first historical or original form of dialectic. Heraclitus was known as the Grim or Dark, and his philosophical system contrasted with the ideas of Democritus, which was noticed by subsequent generations.

He is credited with the authorship of the famous phrase “Everything flows, everything changes” (ancient Greek. Πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει ) . However, the exact translation from Greek means: "Everything flows and moves, and nothing remains."

Biography

Little reliable information about the life of Heraclitus has been preserved. He was born and lived in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus, his acme falls on the 69th Olympiad (504-501 BC), from this we can approximately deduce the date of his birth (about 540) Heraclitus rejected the traditional unwritten right of the elite, believing into a government-imposed law that must be fought for like a hometown. According to some reports, he belonged to the genus of basileus (king-priest), but voluntarily renounced the privileges associated with the origin in favor of his brother.

Biographers emphasize that Heraclitus "was not anyone's listener." He, apparently, was familiar with the views of the philosophers of the Miletus school, Pythagoras, Xenophanes. He also most likely did not have direct students, however, his intellectual influence on subsequent generations of ancient thinkers is significant. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were familiar with the work of Heraclitus, his follower Cratyl becomes the hero of the Platonic dialogue of the same name.

The gloomy and contradictory legends about the circumstances of the death of Heraclitus (“ordered to smear himself with manure and, lying like that, died”, “became the prey of dogs”) are interpreted by some researchers as evidence that the philosopher was buried according to Zoroastrian customs. Traces of Zoroastrian influence are also found in some fragments of Heraclitus.

Heraclitus is one of the founders of dialectics.

Teachings of Heraclitus

Beginning in antiquity, primarily through the testimony of Aristotle, Heraclitus is known for the five doctrines most important for the general interpretation of his teachings:

Modern interpretations are often based on the invalidation of all of these positions by Heraclitus in part or in full, and are characterized by the refutation of each of these doctrines. In particular, F. Schleiermacher rejected (1) and (2), Hegel - (2), J. Burnet - (2), (4), (5), K. Reinhardt, J. Kirk and M. Marcovich reject consistency all five. .

In general, the teachings of Heraclitus can be reduced to the following key positions, with which most researchers agree:

• People are trying to comprehend the underlying connection of things: this is expressed in the Logos as a formula or element of ordering, establishing general for all things (fr. 1, 2, 50 DK).

Heraclitus speaks of himself as someone who has access to the most important truth about the structure of the world, of which a person is a part, knows how to establish this truth. The main ability of a person is to recognize the truth, which is "general". Logos is the criterion of truth, the final point of the method of ordering things. The technical meaning of the word is “speech”, “relation”, “calculation”, “proportion”. The Logos was probably posited by Heraclitus as the actual component of things, and in many respects correlated with the primary cosmic component, fire.

• Various types of proofs of the essential unity of opposites (fr. 61, 111, 88; 57; 103, 48, 126, 99);

Heraclitus sets 4 different kind links between apparent opposites:

a) the same things produce the opposite effect

"The sea is the cleanest and dirtiest water: for fish - drinking and saving, for people - unfit for drinking and destructive" (61 DK)

"Pigs enjoy mud more than clean water" (13 DK)

"The fairest of monkeys is ugly in comparison with another kind" (79 DK)

b) different aspects of the same things can find opposite descriptions (writing - linear and round).

c) good and desirable things, such as health or relaxation, only seem possible if we recognize their opposite:

"Illness makes health pleasant and good, hunger - satiety, fatigue - rest" (111 DK)

d) some opposites are essentially related (literally "to be the same"), as they follow each other, are pursued by each other and by nothing but themselves. So hot-cold- this is a hot-cold continuum, these opposites have one essence, one thing common to the whole pair - temperature. Also a couple day Night- common for the opposites included in it will be the temporal meaning of "day".

All these types of opposites can be reduced to two large groups: (i - a-c) opposites that are inherent or simultaneously produced by one subject; (ii - d) opposites, which are connected through existence in different states into one stable process.

• Each pair of opposites is thus forms both unity and plurality. Different pairs of opposites form an internal relationship

  The doctrine of fire and logos

  According to his teaching, everything came from fire and is in a state of constant change. Fire is the most dynamic, changeable of all the elements. Therefore, for Heraclitus, fire became the beginning of the world, while water is only one of its states. Fire condenses into air, air turns into water, water into earth (“the way down”, which is replaced by the “way up”). The Earth itself, on which we live, was once a red-hot part of the universal fire, but then it cooled down.

  Sayings

  (Quoted from the edition: Fragments of early Greek philosophers, M., Nauka, 1989)

  The writing

  The only work of Heraclitus "On Nature" ("On the Universe", "On the State", "On Theology") has come down to us in 130 (according to other versions - 150 or 100) passages.

  Iconography

  Notes

  Literature

  Collections of fragments and translations

  • Marcovich M. Heraclitus: Greek text with a short commentary including fresh addenda, corrigenda and a select bibliography (1967-2000) / 2 ed. Sankt Austin: Academia-Verlag, 2001. (International Pre-Platonic Studies; Vol. 2). 677p. ISBN 3-89665-171-4.
  • Robinson, T.M. Heraclitus: Fragments: A Text and Translation with a Commentary. - Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8020-6913-4.
  • Heraclitus of Ephesus. Fragments of a work later known as "Muses" or "On Nature". / Per. S. Muravyova. // Titus Lucretius Car. About the nature of things. - M .: "Fiction", 1983. (Library ancient literature). - S. 237-268. Translation. pp. 361-371. Comment.
  • Heraclitus of Ephesus. All heritage in original languages ​​and in Russian translation. - M.: AdMarginem, 2012. - 416 p. ISBN 978-5-91103-112-1
  • Heraclitus. // Fragments of early Greek philosophers. Part 1. / Per. A. V. Lebedeva. - M.: Nauka, 1989. - No. 22. - S. 176-257.

  Research

  Bibliography:

  • Evangelos N. Roussos. Heraklit-Bibliography. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. - Darmstadt, 1971. ISBN 3-534-05585-3.
  • Francesco De Martino, Livio Rossetti, Pierpaolo Rosati. Eraclito. Bibliografia 1970-1984 e complementi 1621-1969. - Neapel, 1986.

  Monographs:

  • A. V. Akhutin Ancient principles of philosophy. - St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2010.
  • Dynnik M. A. Dialectic of Heraclitus of Ephesus. - M.: RANION, 1929. - 205 p.
  • Cassidy F. H. Philosophical and aesthetic views of Heraclitus of Ephesus. 2500 years since the birth. - M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Arts, 1963. - 164 p.
    • 2nd ed. titled Heraclitus. - M.: Thought, 1982. - 199 p. (Thinkers of the past)
    • 3rd ed., add. - St. Petersburg: Aletheia, 2004. (Antique Library. Research)

  Articles and dissertations:

  • Prince Trubetskoy S.N.// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
  • Bakina V.I. Cosmological doctrine of Heraclitus of Ephesus // Bulletin of Moscow University. - Series 7. - Philosophy. - 1998. - No. 4. - P. 42-55.
  • Bakina V.I. Philosophical doctrine of Heraclitus of Ephesus about the Universe in the context of ancient culture. Abstract diss. ... k. philos. n. - M., 1995.
  • Wolf M. N. Epistemology of Heraclitus of Ephesus // Rationalism and irrationalism in ancient philosophy: monograph / V. P. Goran, M. N. Wolf and others; Ros. acad. Sciences, Sib. dept. Institute of Philosophy. and rights. - Novosibirsk: Publishing house of SO RAN, 2010. - 386 p. - Chapter II. - S. 67-119. ISBN 978-5-7692-1144-7.
  • Guseva A. A. Some terms of Heraclitus in the translation of V. O. Nilender. // Vox. Philosophical journal. - No. 9. - December, 2010.
  • Kabisov R.S. Logos of Heraclitus and the Science of Logic // Philosophy and Society. Philosophy and Society. - M., 1998. - No. 3. - P. 135-154.
  • Cassidy F.H., Kondziolka V.V.. Heraclitus and the Ancient East // Philosophical Sciences. - 1981. - No. 5. - P. 94-100.
  • Cassidy F. H. Heraclitus and dialectical materialism// Questions of Philosophy. - 2009. - No. 3. - P.142-146.
  • Lebedev A.V.ΨΗΓΜΑ ΣΥΜΦΥΣΩΜΕΝΟΝ. A new fragment of Heraclitus (reconstruction of metallurgical metaphors in the cosmogonic fragments of Heraclitus). // Bulletin ancient history. - 1979. - № 2; 1980. - № 1.
  • Lebedev A.V.ΨΥΧΗΣ ΠΕΙΡΑΤΑ (on the denotation of the term ψυχή in the cosmological fragments of Heraclitus 66-67 Mch) // Structure of the text. - M., 1980. - S. 118-147.
  • Lebedev A.V. The agonal model of the cosmos by Heraclitus // Historical and Philosophical Yearbook "87. - M., 1987. P. 29-46.
  • Muravyov S. N. Syllabo-tonicity of the rhythmic prose of Heraclitus of Ephesus // Antiquity and Modernity. To the 80th anniversary of Fyodor Aleksandrovich Petrovsky. - M., 1972. - S. 236-251.
  • Muravyov S. N. Poetics of Heraclitus: phonemic level // The Balkans in the context of the Mediterranean: Abstracts and preliminary materials for the symposium. - M., 1986. - S.58-65.
  • Muravyov S. N. Hidden harmony. Preparatory materials for the description of the poetics of Heraclitus at the level of phonemes // Paleobalkan studies and antiquity. - M: Nauka, 1989. - C.145-164. ISBN 5-02-010950-9.
  • Muravyov S. N. Traditio Heraclitea (A): Collection of ancient sources about Heraclitus // Bulletin of ancient history. - 1992. - No. 1. - S.36-52.
  • Murzin N. N. Gods and Philosophers: The Kitchen of Heraclitus // Vox. Philosophical journal. - No. 9. - December, 2010.
  • Poznyak I. B. Dialectic of Heraclitus. Abstract diss. ... k. philos. n. - L., 1955.
  • Holtzman A. Similarities and differences between the doctrines of opposites by Heraclitus and Nicholas of Cusa // Verbum. - SPb., 2007. - Issue. 9. The legacy of Nicholas of Cusa and the traditions of European philosophizing. - S. 55-69.
  • Graham D.W. Heraclitus' criticism of Ionian philosophy // Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy. Vol. XV / Ed. by C.C.W. Taylor. - Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. - P. 1-50.

  Links

  	Heraclitus of Ephesus at Wikiquote
  	in Wikisource
  	Heraclitus of Ephesus at Wikimedia Commons

  • Fragments of Heraclitus (original, English and French translations)
  • Heraclitus on the portal "Philosophy in Russia"
    • Fragments of Heraclitus Trans. M. A. Dynnik
    • 22. Heraclitus // Fragments of early Greek philosophers. Part 1: From epic theocosmogony to the rise of atomism / Ed. preparation A. V. Lebedev. - M.: Nauka, 1989. - (Monuments philosophical thought.) - ISBN 5-02-008030-6
      • Fragments: ,

What contribution to science was made by Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher, you will learn from this article.

Heraclitus: contributions to biology

Man throughout his history was interested in the problems of life and death, the fight against ailments, longevity, the preservation of health, the difference between living and non-living. And for a long time it was believed that all processes are led by the Gods.

At the turn of the 6th - 5th centuries, Heraclitus (a Greek thinker) first put forward the idea of ​​the development of organisms according to the laws of nature. And only by knowing them you can use the laws for the benefit of mankind. The scientist Heraclitus believed that our world is constantly changing. He believed that the element of fire is the origin of everything on the planet. Its ancient Greeks represented the lightest, most mobile and thin. Heraclitus' contribution to science is that the thinker presented a theory: all things appear from fire by condensation and, after its rarefaction, return there again. Fire gradually turns into air, air into water, and water into earth. Here is another thing that Heraclitus discovered - our planet Earth was once a red-hot part of the universal fire. Slowly she began to cool down. And it became what we see it now. The theory of world fire emphasizes the following: the world, according to the philosopher, was not created by any gods, and even more so by people. The fire of the world is constantly flaring up, then dying out.

Heraclitus discoveries in biology

The life of Heraclitus was not subject only to philosophical reflections. He also devoted a lot of time to biological science. Achievements of Heraclitus in natural science is the creation of the theory of atomism. The thinker created the Heraclitean human anatomy, which fully corresponds to the structure of the world. The body is made up of atoms, just like the world around us. Principal body human body, according to the philosopher, was the stomach. In addition, Heraclitus discovered the laws of the human soul and the nature of the physical world. His teachings formed the basis for the creation of the Miletus school. Its famous representatives were Thales and Pythagoras.

Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 - 475 BC). An ancient Greek materialist philosopher, one of the largest representatives of the Ionian school of philosophy.

Fire was the origin of all things. Creator of the concept of continuous change, the doctrine of "logos", which he interpreted as "god", "fate", "necessity", "eternity". He owns the famous saying "You can't step into the same river twice."

Along with Pythagoras and Parmenides, Heraclitus determined the foundations of ancient and all European philosophy. Heraclitus considered being itself as a mystery, a riddle.

A native of Ephesus, he belonged to an ancient aristocratic family, dating back to the founder of Ephesus, Androclus. Due to his origin, he had a number of "royal" privileges and a hereditary priesthood at the temple of Artemis of Ephesus. However, at that time, power in Ephesus no longer belonged to aristocrats.

The philosopher did not participate in public life, abandoned his titles, spoke sharply negatively about the city's order and contemptuously treated the "crowd". He considered the laws of the city so hopelessly bad that he refused his fellow citizens a request for new ones, noting that it was better to play with children than to participate in public affairs.

Heraclitus did not leave Ephesus and refused the invitations of the Athenians and the Persian king Darius

The main work of the philosopher - the book "On Nature" has been preserved in fragments. It consists of three parts: about nature, about the state and about God, and is distinguished by originality, figurativeness and aphoristic language. The basic idea is that nothing in nature is permanent. Everything is like the movement of a river that cannot be entered twice. One constantly passes into another, changing its state.

The symbolic expression of universal change for Heraclitus is fire. Fire is continuous self-destruction; he lives by his death.

Heraclitus introduced a new philosophical concept-logos (word), meaning by this the principle of the reasonable unity of the world, which orders the world by mixing opposite principles. Opposites are in eternal struggle, giving rise to new phenomena (“discord is the father of everything”). The human mind and logos have a common nature, but the logos exists in eternity and governs the cosmos, of which man is a particle.

Tradition has preserved the image of Heraclitus - a lonely sage who despised people (and those who were famous for wisdom) for not understanding what they themselves say and do.

His sayings are often like folklore riddles or the words of an oracle, which, according to Heraclitus, "does not speak, and does not hide, but gives signs." It is believed that by writing his work deliberately obscure and giving it to the temple of Artemis for safekeeping, Heraclitus seemed to want to protect him from the ignorant crowd.

Sayings of Heraclitus reveal a thoughtful structure, a special poetics. They are saturated with alliterations, a play on words, characteristic of the structure of inner speech, addressed not so much to others as to oneself, ready to return to the element of thinking silence.

To be, according to Heraclitus, means to constantly become, to flow from form to form, to be renewed, just as the same river carries new and new waters. Another metaphor for being is in Heraclitus burning, fire. A single being, as it were, flares up with a multitude of things that exist, but it also goes out in it, just as the things that exist, flaming up with being, go out in its unity. Another metaphor for the same is the game: every time a new game of the same game.

other Greek Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος

ancient Greek philosopher, founder of the first historical or original form of dialectics

544 - 483 BC e.

short biography

An ancient Greek philosopher who is credited with creating the first historical dialectic; he is considered the author of the famous phrase "Everything flows, everything changes." There is very little reliable information in the biography of Heraclitus. It is known that his homeland is the city of Ephesus (Asia Minor). During the 69th Olympiad (504-501 BC), the philosopher was a mature man, in the prime of life, on the basis of which the researchers made the assumption that he was born around 540 BC. e.

Heraclitus was a descendant of an ancient aristocratic family, his ancestor Androclus founded Ephesus. By inheritance, Heraclitus received the rank of priest in the temple of Artemis of Ephesus. But he refused the honors due to his origin, moreover, he completely withdrew himself from lawmaking and participation in the public life of the city. Heraclitus held an extremely negative opinion about urban orders, treated fellow citizens and people in general with contempt, believing that they themselves were not aware of what they were doing and what they were saying. He was especially angry with his countrymen when the townspeople expelled his friend Hermodorus from Ephesus. Nevertheless, when the inhabitants of Athens and the king of Persia, Darius, invited him, the philosopher did not want to leave his native city. Toward the end of his life, he turned into a real hermit, went to live in the mountains, where he ate pasture.

Contemporaries gave Heraclitus the nickname "Skutinos", i.e. "Dark", "Gloomy". It corresponded to his misanthropic moods and at the same time reflected the depth and mystery of his thoughts, often expressed in images that were difficult to perceive, as well as the "mood" of his entire philosophical system, which gave reason to oppose him to the "laughing sage" - Democritus.

Heraclitus was a prominent representative of the Ionian philosophical school, which as the main idea put forward the origin of all things from the beginning, its unity. For Heraclitus, this initial principle was fire, the material expression of which is the cosmos, which is constantly changing. It was this philosopher who first called the universe the word "cosmos", earlier this term hid the order that reigned in the life of a state or a single person.

Today we know only about the only work of Heraclitus - "On Nature", which is represented by several dozen passages included in the works of other, later authors, in particular, Plato, Plutarch, Diogenes, etc. This philosophy consisted of three parts: theological, political and natural-philosophical. The basis of the Heraclitean doctrine is the idea of ​​the variability of everything that exists, the absence of anything permanent. In nature, there is a constant process of transition from one to another, a change of state, which is why "you cannot enter the same river twice."

He introduces into the terminology a multi-valued new concept - “logos”, which means, in particular, the principle of unity, which, by uniting opposite principles, brings the universe to order. According to Heraclitus, "discord is the father of everything", the eternal struggle of opposites leads to the emergence of new phenomena. For him, good and evil, life and death, day and night were two sides of the same coin. Such a system of views made it possible to classify Heraclitus among the founders of dialectics, the first materialist philosophers who derived the dialectical principles of knowledge and being, although their ideas were distinguished by some naivety.

According to the researchers, Heraclitus cannot be attributed to anyone's followers, he most likely did not have his own students, however, the influence of his system on the formation of the worldview of later thinkers is difficult to overestimate; he, like Pythagoras and Parmenides, was directly involved in laying the foundations for ancient and later European philosophical thought.

The death of the great philosopher is shrouded in a trail of conflicting information: Heraclitus allegedly expected his death, being smeared with manure at his own request, and was torn to pieces by dogs. In these legends, some researchers see nothing more than statements of the philosopher himself distorted beyond recognition, others - signs of his burial in accordance with Zoroastrian traditions, the influence of which can be traced in separate passages belonging to him. When exactly Heraclitus died is unknown, presumably it happened in 480 BC. e.

Biography from Wikipedia

Heraclitus of Ephesus(ancient Greek Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος, 544 - 483 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher.

Founder of the first historical or original form of dialectics. Heraclitus was known as the Gloomy or Dark (according to Aristotle - ancient Greek ὁ σκοτεινός λεγόμενος Ἡράκλειτος), and his philosophical system contrasted with the ideas of Democritus, which was noticed by subsequent generations.

His only work, from which only a few dozen fragments-citations have been preserved, is the book “On Nature”, which consisted of three parts (“On Nature”, “On the State”, “On God”).

Little reliable information about the life of Heraclitus has been preserved. He was born and lived in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus, his acme falls on the 69th Olympiad (504-501 BC), from which you can approximately deduce the date of his birth (about 540). According to some sources, he belonged to the genus Basileus (priest-kings with purely nominal power in the time of Heraclitus), descendants of Androcles, but voluntarily renounced the privileges associated with descent in favor of his brother.

Diogenes Laertes reports that Heraclitus, “having hated people, retired and began to live in the mountains, feeding on pasture and herbs.” He also writes that a disciple of Parmenides Melissus came to the philosopher in his voluntary exile and "introduced Heraclitus to the Ephesians, who did not want to know him."

Biographers emphasize that Heraclitus "was not anyone's listener." He, apparently, was familiar with the views of the philosophers of the Miletus school, Pythagoras, Xenophanes. He also most likely did not have direct students, however, his intellectual influence on subsequent generations of ancient thinkers is significant. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were familiar with the work of Heraclitus, his follower Cratyl becomes the hero of the Platonic dialogue of the same name.

The gloomy and contradictory legends about the circumstances of the death of Heraclitus (“ordered to smear himself with manure and, lying like that, died”, “became the prey of dogs”) are interpreted by some researchers as evidence that the philosopher was buried according to Zoroastrian customs. Traces of Zoroastrian influence are also found in some fragments of Heraclitus.

Emperor Marcus Aurelius writes in his memoirs that Heraclitus died of dropsy, and smeared himself with manure as a remedy for the disease.

Heraclitus is one of the founders of dialectics.

Teachings of Heraclitus

Since antiquity, primarily through the testimony of Aristotle, Heraclitus is known for five doctrines that are most important for the general interpretation of his teachings:

• Fire is the beginning (ancient Greek ἀρχή) or the original material cause of the world.
• There are periodic episodes of the world fire (ancient Greek ἐκπύρωσις), during which the cosmos is destroyed in order to be reborn again.
• Everything is a flow (so-called. Doctrine or flow theory).
• Identity of opposites.
• Violation of the law of contradiction. This doctrine is rather a consequence of (3) and (4) than an independent position of the teachings of Heraclitus.

Modern interpretations are often based on the invalidation of all of these positions by Heraclitus in part or in full, and are characterized by the refutation of each of these doctrines. In particular, F. Schleiermacher rejected (1) and (2), Hegel - (2), J. Burnet - (2), (4), (5), K. Reinhardt, J. Kirk and M. Marcovich reject consistency all five.

In general, the teachings of Heraclitus can be reduced to the following key positions, with which most researchers agree:

• People are trying to comprehend the underlying connection of things: this is expressed in the Logos as a formula or element of ordering, establishing general for all things (fr. 1, 2, 50 DK).

Heraclitus speaks of himself as someone who has access to the most important truth about the structure of the world, of which a person is a part, knows how to establish this truth. The main ability of a person is to recognize the truth, which is "general". Logos is the criterion of truth, the final point of the method of ordering things. The technical meaning of the word is “speech”, “relation”, “calculation”, “proportion”. The Logos was probably posited by Heraclitus as the actual component of things, and in many respects correlated with the primary cosmic component, fire.

• Various types of proofs of the essential unity of opposites (fr. 61, 111, 88; 57; 103, 48, 126, 99);

Heraclitus establishes 4 different types of connection between apparent opposites:

a) the same things produce the opposite effect

"The sea is the cleanest and dirtiest water: for fish - drinking and saving, for people - unfit for drinking and destructive" (61 DK)

"Pigs enjoy mud more than clean water" (13 DK)

"The fairest of monkeys is ugly in comparison with another kind" (79 DK)

b) different aspects of the same things can find opposite descriptions (writing - linear and round).

c) good and desirable things, such as health or relaxation, only seem possible if we recognize their opposite:

"Illness makes health pleasant and good, hunger - satiety, fatigue - rest" (111 DK)

d) some opposites are essentially related (literally "to be the same"), as they follow each other, are pursued by each other and by nothing but themselves. So hot-cold- this is a hot-cold continuum, these opposites have one essence, one thing common to the whole pair - temperature. Also a couple day Night- common for the opposites included in it will be the temporal meaning of "day".

All these types of opposites can be reduced to two large groups: (i - a-c) opposites that are inherent or simultaneously produced by one subject; (ii - d) opposites that are connected through existence in different states into one stable process.

• Each pair of opposites is thus forms both unity and plurality. Different pairs of opposites form an internal relationship

  “Conjugations (ancient Greek συνάψιες): whole and non-whole, converging divergent, consonant inconsonant, from everything - one, from one - everything” (10 DK)

Συνάψιες is letters."things put together", interconnections. Such "things taken together" must first of all be opposites: that which is given with the night is the day (Heraclitus here expresses what we might call "simple qualities" and which he could then classify as opposites; that is, it is all those changes which can be related as taking place between opposites). So "things taken together" are indeed described in one sense as "whole", that is, forming one continuum, in another sense - as "not a whole", as single components. Applying these alternative analyzes to the conglomeration of "things taken together" one can see that "from all things a unity is formed", and also that from this unity (ἐξ ἑνὸς) the external, discrete, multiple aspect of things ("everything", πάντα) can emerge .

There is some relationship between God and the number of pairs of opposites

“God: day-night, winter-summer, war-peace, excess-need (that is, all opposites - such is the meaning); but it changes as if when mixed with incense, it is named after the smell of each [of them] ”(67 DK)

In contrast to the teachings of Xenophanes, in Heraclitus God looks like immanent things or as the sum of pairs of opposites. Heraclitus did not associate god with the need for worship or service. God is essentially not different from the logos, and the logos, among other things, collects things and makes them opposites, relations between them are proportional and balanced. God is a common connecting element for all opposite ends of any oppositions. The total plurality of things thus forms a single, connected, definite complex - unity.

• The unity of things is obvious, it lies right on the surface and depends on balanced interactions between opposites (Fr. 54, 123, 51 DK).

At the same time, the implicit type of connection between opposites is stronger than the obvious type of connection.

"Hidden harmony is better than obvious" (ἁρμονίη ἀφανὴς φανερῆς κρείττων) (54 DK)

• The general equilibrium in the cosmos can only be maintained if changes in one direction eventually lead to a change in the other, that is, if there is an endless "enmity" between opposites (Fr. 80, 53).
• The Image of the River ("Flow Theory") illustrates the kind of unity that depends on the preservation of measure and balance in change (fr. 12).
• The world is an ever-living fire, parts of which are always fading to the forms of the other two basic world-constituents, water and earth. Changes between fire, sea, and earth balance each other; pure or ethereal fire plays a decisive role.
• Astronomy. The heavenly bodies are bowls of fire, nourished by fumes from the sea; astronomical events also have their measure.
• Wisdom consists in truly understanding how the world works. Only God can be wise, man is endowed with reason (φρόνησις) and intuition (νοῦς), but not with wisdom.

"Wisdom is knowing all as one" (50 DK)

• Souls are made of fire; they arise from it and return to it, the moisture, completely absorbed by the soul, leads it to death. The fire of the soul is correlated with the fire of the world.
• The awake, the sleeping, and the dead are correlated according to the degree of fieryness in the soul. In a dream, the souls are partially separated from the world fire, and so on. their activity is reduced.
• Virtuous souls do not become water after the death of the body, on the contrary, they live, uniting with cosmic fire.
• The worship of traditional religion is foolishness, although it may occasionally point to the truth (fr. 5, 14, 15, 93 DK).
• Ethical and policy recommendations, suggesting that self-knowledge and moderation should be recognized as the main ideals.

Criticism by Heraclitus of Milesian philosophy and the doctrine of fire

Heraclitus' doctrine of fire can be understood as a response to the early Ionian (Miletian) philosophers. The philosophers of Miletus (a city not far from Ephesus), Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes believed that there is some initial primary substance or primary element that becomes any other thing. The world as we know it is an ordered combination of various elements or substances produced by the primary element, the primary matter. For the Milesians, to explain the world and its phenomena meant simply to show how everything happens, arises or transforms from the original substance, as is the case with the water of Thales or the air of Anaximenes.

Heraclitus seems to follow this pattern of explaining the world when he views the world as "an ever-living fire" (B 30 DK) and states that "Lightning governs all things", alluding to the governing power of fire (B 64 DK). But the choice of fire as the original primary substance is extremely strange: the primary substance must be stable and stable, retaining its essential qualities, while fire is impermanent and extremely changeable, being a symbol of change and process. Heraclitus notes:

“All things are pledged by fire, and fire [against] all things, as if [against] gold - property and [against] property - gold” (B 90 DK)

We can measure all things in relation to fire as the standard; there is an equivalence between gold and all things, but things are not identical with gold. Similarly, fire provides a standard of value for the other elements, but is not identical with them. Fire plays an essential role in the teachings of Heraclitus, but it is not the exclusive and unique source for other things, since all things or elements are equivalent. Fire is more important as a symbol than as a primary element. Fire is constantly changing, however, like the rest of the elements. One substance is transformed into another in a certain cycle of changes. What bears constancy is not any primary element, but the overall process of change itself. There is a certain constant law of transformations that can be correlated with the Logos. Heraclitus could say that the Milesians correctly believed that one element turns into another through a series of transformations, but they incorrectly deduced from this the existence of some primary element as the only source for all that exists.

If A is the source of B, and B is the source of C, and C becomes B and then A, then B is the same as the source of A and C, and C is the source of A and B. There is no special reason to promote one element or substance. as reimbursement for the consumption of another substance. It is important to note that any substance can turn into any other. The only constant in this process is the law of change, by which the order and sequence of change is established. If this is indeed what Heraclitus had in mind when developing his philosophical system, then he goes far beyond the ordinary physical theory of his predecessors, and rather builds a system with a more subtle understanding of metaphysics.

The doctrine of fire and logos

Hendrik Terbruggen. , 1628

According to his teaching, everything came from fire and is in a state of constant change. Fire is the most dynamic, changeable of all the elements. Therefore, for Heraclitus, fire became the beginning of the world, while water is only one of its states. Fire condenses into air, air turns into water, water into earth (“the way down”, which is replaced by the “way up”). The Earth itself, on which we live, was once a red-hot part of the universal fire, but then it cooled down.

Philosophers are companions of the gods. Logos - both the mind and the Word - has the function of managing (things, processes, space). Through Socrates and the Stoics, this thought of Heraclitus apparently passed into the Targums, and from there into Christian doctrine about the Logos - the second person of the Holy Trinity.

sextus. adv. math. VII 132; hippolyt. Refiitatio IX 9.1 του δε λόγου .. οκωςεχει“But although this logos exists forever, people turn out to be incomprehensible to it both before they listen to it and once they listen. For although all [people] come face to face with this logos, they seem unfamiliar with it even when they try to understand such words and deeds as I speak of, dividing them according to nature and expressing clearly what they are. As for the rest of the people, they are not aware of what they are doing in reality, just as they are in oblivion of what they are doing in a dream.

The idea of ​​universal variability and movement

Heraclitus believed that everything is constantly changing. The position of universal variability was associated by Heraclitus with the idea of ​​the internal bifurcation of things and processes into opposite sides, with their interaction. Heraclitus believed that everything in life arises from opposites and is known through them: "Illness makes health pleasant and good, hunger - satiety, fatigue - rest." Logos as a whole is a unity of opposites, a backbone connection. “Hearing, not to me, but to the Logos, it is wise to recognize that all is one.”

Sayings

• What can be seen, heard, known, I prefer. (55 DK)
• Nature loves to hide. (123 DK)
• Secret harmony is better than explicit. (54 DK)
• I was looking for myself. (101 DK)
• Eyes and ears are bad witnesses for people if their souls are barbaric. (107 DK)
• One must know that war is generally accepted, that enmity is the law (δίκη), and that everything arises through enmity and mutually. (80 DK)
• War is the father of all, the king of all: it declares some to be gods, others to be men, some to be slaves, others to be free. (53 DK)
• On the rivers entering the same rivers, one time one, another time different waters flow (12 DK)
• Century - a child playing, throwing bones, a child on the throne. (52 DK)
• Personality (ἦθος) - the deity of man. (119 DK)
• The people must fight for the trampled law, as for the wall (of the city). (44 DK)
• Born to live, they are doomed to death (or rather, to rest), and even leave children to be born [new] death (20 DK)
• Multi-knowledge does not teach the mind. (40 DK, often erroneously attributed to Lomonosov)

(Quoted from the edition: Fragments of early Greek philosophers, M., Nauka, 1989)

• This cosmos, the same for everyone, was not created by any of the gods or of people, but it has always been, is and will be an ever-living fire, flaring up in measures and extinguishing in measures.
• For those who are awake, there is one common world (ancient Greek κοινὸς κόσμος), and from the sleeping, each turns away into his own (ancient Greek ἴδιος κόσμος).

The writing

Later authors (from Aristotle and Plutarch to Clement of Alexandria and Hippolytus of Rome) have numerous (about 100 in total) quotations and paraphrases from his work. Experiences in the collection and systematization of these fragments have been undertaken since the beginning of the 19th century, and the works of F. Schleiermacher became a significant milestone in the study of the heritage of Heraclitus. But the pinnacle of these studies was the classic work of Hermann Diels (Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, first edition in 1903). During the XX century. the collection of Heraclitean fragments was repeatedly supplemented, attempts were also made to reconstruct their original order, to recreate the structure and content of the original text (Markovich, Muravyov).

Diogenes Laertes cites several titles for Heraclitus's work: "The Muses", "On Nature", "The Infallible Rule of Life" and a number of other options; most likely, all of them do not belong to the author. He also writes that the "poem" of Heraclitus "is divided into three arguments: about everything, about the state and about the deity." According to him, Heraclitus placed his book "in the sanctuary of Artemis, taking care (as they say) to write it as darkly as possible, so that only the able had access to it." Diogenes Laertes retained an epigram characterizing the work of Heraclitus:

The same Diogenes Laertes conveys that Socrates allegedly read the work of Heraclitus, and after reading it said: “What I understood is fine; what I didn't understand, probably, too. Only, really, for such a book you need to be a Delian diver.

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PHILOSOPHY OF HERACLITOUS

Great dialectician ancient world is Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 520-460 BC). “Everything that exists,” he taught, “is constantly moving from one state to another: everything flows, everything changes; the same river cannot be entered twice; there is nothing immovable in the world: the cold gets warmer, the warm gets colder, the wet dries up, the dry gets moistened. Appearance and disappearance, life and death, birth and death - existence and non-existence - are interconnected, they condition and pass into each other. According to his views, the transition of a phenomenon from one state to another is accomplished through the struggle of opposites, which he called the eternal "universal logos", that is, a single law common to all existence. Heraclitus taught that the world was not created by any of the gods and by any of the people, but was, is and will be an ever-living fire, naturally igniting and naturally extinguishing.

Heraclitus of Ephesus came from an aristocratic family, deprived of power by democracy, spent his life avoiding secular affairs, and by the end of his life he completely became a hermit. The main work "On Nature", which has survived only fragmentarily, was recognized during the life of Heraclitus as thoughtful and difficult to understand, for which the author received the nickname "dark".

In the doctrine of being (ontology), Heraclitus claims that the fundamental principle of the world is fire. Cosmos was not created by anyone, but was, is and will be an ever-living fire, now flaring up, now dying out. Fire is eternal, space is a product of fire. Fire undergoes a series of transformations, first becoming water, and water is the seed of the universe. Water, in turn, transforms into earth and air, giving rise to the surrounding world.

Heraclitus can be considered the founder of the doctrine of knowledge (epistemology). He was the first to distinguish between sensory and rational knowledge. Cognition, in his opinion, begins with feelings, but sensory data give only a superficial description of the knowable, therefore, they must be processed by the mind accordingly.

The social and legal views of Heraclitus are known, in particular, his respect for the law. "The people must fight for the law, as for a city wall, and the crime should be put out sooner than the fire," he said. The dialectic of Heraclitus, which takes into account both sides of the phenomenon - both its variability and its unchanging nature, was not adequately perceived by contemporaries and was already subjected to the most diverse criticism in antiquity. If Cratyl urged to ignore the moment of stability, then the Eleatics (natives of the city of Elea) Xenophanes (c. 570-478 BC), Parmenides (late VI-V centuries BC), Zeno (mid-V century BC), on the contrary, focused attention precisely on the moment of stability, reproaching Heraclitus for exaggerating the role of variability.
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