Heraclitus year of discovery. Heraclitus: philosophy, main ideas, statements

Heraclitus of Ephesus - approximately 540 - 480 BC

1. Life and writings. Heraclitus came from a noble family, one of his ancestors was the founder of Ephesus. He belonged by birth to an aristocratic party and in his maturity was a bitter enemy of the democracy that developed in the Ionian cities. The expulsion from the city of his friend Hermodorus finally restored him against his fellow citizens. He did not consider it possible to participate in the legislation and administration of the city, the structure of which seemed to him hopelessly spoiled; yielding to his brother the rank of basileus, he lived in poverty and loneliness. He is also said to have turned down an invitation from the Persian king Darius to spend some time at his court. Heraclitus was initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, studied with the magician-priests, followers of Zoroaster, and was himself a priest. At the end of his life, he retired from Ephesus and lived as a hermit in the mountains, eating herbs.

Heraclitus expounded his teachings in the book "About nature", which he deposited in the Temple of Artemis of Ephesus. From this work, divided into three parts - natural philosophy, political and theological - many aphorisms have come down to us, reminiscent of the sayings of oracles, who usually communicated only with those who deserved it and kept away from the crowd. And Heraclitus hid his thoughts in order to avoid the ridicule of fools who thought they understood everything, passing off ordinary common sense as profound truths. For this, he was nicknamed "dark", although some parts of his work were distinguished by strength, clarity and conciseness.

2. Dialectics as a doctrine of the unity and struggle of opposites. Heraclitus argued: everything flows, nothing remains motionless and constant, everything develops and turns into something else. In two of his well-known fragments we read: “You cannot enter the same river twice and you cannot touch something mortal twice in the same state, but, because of the irresistibility and speed of change, everything is scattered and collected, comes and goes.” "We enter and do not enter the same river, we are the same and not the same." The meaning of these fragments is clear: outwardly the river is the same, meanwhile, in reality, it always consists of new water, which comes and goes, therefore, entering the river a second time, we are washed by another water. But we ourselves are changing: at the moment of complete immersion in the river, we are already different, not the same as we were. That is why Heraclitus says that we enter and do not enter the same river. In the same way, we are and are not, in order to be what we are at a certain moment, we must not be what we were at the previous moment. This aspect of the teachings of Heraclitus led some of his students to extreme conclusions, such as Cratylus, who argued: not only can we not bathe twice in the same river, but we cannot even once, at the moment of entering and immersing in the river, another water arrives, and we ourselves are others even before complete immersion.

For Heraclitus, the statement about the variability of the world around us was a statement of a fact that is obvious to everyone, starting from which, one must go to deeper questions: what is the source or cause of the constant change in the world; what lies at the basis of the world, for it is impossible to think of becoming without abiding!? There are two sources of movement and change: external and internal. The first source is the existence and interaction of opposites. Becoming is a continuous transition from one opposite to another: cold things heat up, hot things cool, wet things dry up, dry things get moistened, a youth grows old, a living one dies, another youth is born from a mortal, and so on. There is always a struggle going on between the opposing sides. "Struggle is the mother of all and the mistress of all." The eternal flow of things and the universal becoming are revealed as a harmony of contrasts, as an eternal appeasement of the belligerents, reconciliation of disputants and vice versa. “They (the ignorant) do not understand that what is excellent is in accordance with itself; the harmony of differences is like the harmony of the lyre and the bow. Only in alternation do opposites give each other a specific meaning: “Sickness makes health sweet, hunger gives the pleasantness of satiety, and hard work gives a taste of rest.” Opposites come from the One and unite in harmony: “The road up and the road down are the same road.” One and the same - living and dead, awake and sleeping, young and old, because some things, changing, became others, and those, others, changing in turn, become the first. Philosophy is reflection on the great contradictions that the mind encounters everywhere in the reality it cognizes. The opposite principles of unity and multitude, finite and infinite, rest and movement, light and darkness, good and evil, active and passive exclude each other, and at the same time they are united in the source and the whole structure of the Cosmos is held together by their harmonious combination. So Heraclitus said Cosmic Law of Polarity: the manifested world exists due to the bifurcation of the One into opposites, which are united in their essence, but different in manifestation. Hence, the knowledge of the world consists in the knowledge of opposites and finding their unity.

3. Teaching about Fire. The inner source of development of all forms of the world is the Spiritual Beginning. Heraclitus argued that the Single Beginning, underlying all phenomena in Nature, is Fire, everything is a manifestation of this Divine Substance. “All things are the exchange of fire, and one fire changes all things, just as commodities are the exchange of gold, and all things are exchanged for gold.” “This order, the same for all things, was not created by any of the Gods, and by none of the people, but has always been, is and will be the eternal living Fire, kindling by measures and fading by measures.” Fire is Spirit or Primal Life, all other elements and forms are only transformations of Fire, everything that we see is only extinguished, hidden Fire. Fire, according to Heraclitus, Hippocrates and Parmenides, is the Divine Principle, the teachings of the Zoroastrians, Plato and the Stoics that everything in the world, including the soul and body of man, developed from Fire, the thinking and immortal Element, are identical. If Fire is the Spirit that animates everything, then the earthly substance is the extinguished spirit; the souls of men, on the other hand, are "flaming fires," ignited matter. The Universe arises from the One Element, Fire, this primary Substance transforms from the state of Fire into Air then into the state of Water, then Water becomes Earth, and then everything returns to the source. The path from Fire to Earth - the path of extinction - Heraclitus calls the "path down", the reverse process of ignition - "the path up". He recognized the world year, consisting of two periods: the period of impoverishment of the Deity, corresponding to the formation of the world, and the period of fullness, excess, saturation, corresponding to the ignition of the Cosmos. So Heraclitus said Cosmic Law of the Cycle: everything begins with a fiery divine state and ends in a dense state, and then the process unfolds to the beginning, the material again becomes spiritual.

4. The doctrine of the Logos and Cosmos. In the philosophy of the ancient Greeks, the word Logos had several meanings: law, word, saying, speech, the meaning of words and the content of speech, and finally, thought and its bearer, the mind. As a result, the Logos is the Cosmic Mind, God is the Creator and Ruler of the Cosmos. Logos is a Fiery Being; Reason moving the Cosmos is Fire and Fire is Reason. The Logos of Heraclitus periodically creates Cosmos from Fire and destroys it again after all the lives in it have passed the cycle of existence laid down by him. Nothing will escape or hide from this fiery Logos, he will come suddenly, judge everything and take everything; the world must ignite and all the elements will again plunge into the Fire from which they once arose. Under the Cosmos, the ancient philosophers meant our Solar System, knowing about the Infinity of the worlds, they studied our space, the house in which minerals, plants, animals, humans and gods evolve. Cosmos includes various spheres with different density of matter, in Heraclitus we find a mention that the Cosmos is at least divided into two parts: the upper, heavenly - the sphere of divine, pure and intelligent Fire, and the lower, sublunar - the sphere of extinguished matter, cold, heavy and damp. Thus, the Cosmos for the philosopher seemed to be one and animated, full of souls, demons and gods.

5. The doctrine of man. Heraclitus fully accepted the Pythagorean and Zoroastrian views on the human soul and its properties. Man is the unity of soul and body, besides, man has two souls: one fiery, dry, wise, immortal; the other is wet, unwise, blind, mortal. Condemning popular religion, especially in the crude forms of its cult, Heraclitus, nevertheless, was a religious thinker who affirmed the supermundane existence and the law of reincarnation. He believed that the souls of people, before descending "into the origin" or sublunar existence, live in the "Milky Way". He revived the Orphic idea that bodily life is the mortification of the soul, and the death of the body brings the soul to life, asserted the idea of ​​punishment and reward after death: “After death, people are overtaken by something that they did not expect, that they could not even imagine.” He recognized the individual immortality of the Supreme Soul and its evolution: Gods are immortal people, people are mortal gods; the death of a deity is the life of man, the death of a man is the birth of a deity, the resurrection of true life. “The immortals are mortal, the mortals are immortal, these live by the death of those, and those die by the life of these.” There is constant communion between man and the deity, because man cognizes the divine, and the divine is revealed to him.

6. Teaching about knowledge. The comprehension of the Truth is difficult; in order to find a grain of gold, a lot of earth must be dug up; to find the Truth, we must explore everything by personal experience and labor, believing our eyes more than our ears, ascending from the known to the unknown, expecting the unexpected. We must learn from Nature itself, comprehend the secret unity and harmony in visible struggle, the hidden harmony triumphing over its opposite; we must seek in Nature itself the Law, the Logos. The weakness of the human mind, its delusions, the inability to cognize the Truth are determined by the sensuality of man, which obscures this light. It is necessary to be on guard with respect to the senses, for the latter are satisfied with the outward appearance of things. A person comprehends the Truth, joining the wisdom of the Logos, which his Divine soul is involved. Sensual passions and inclinations that defile the soul, conceit, arrogance and superstition, addiction to private human opinions - all this alienates the soul from the Logos, the source of Wisdom. Gotta follow Mind which is one and universal, but people live, as if each had his own mind and therefore not conscious of what they say and what they do. Every rational reasoning must be established on that which has the universality and necessity of the Law, and, moreover, the Divine Law, and not the conditional decree of any state. Only rational knowledge has complete certainty; only Intelligence can discern the true in perception, find identity and agreement in apparent difference. The noblest of the senses - sight and hearing - lie to a person who is not enlightened by Reason and does not know how to understand their instructions. Truth is reached by the mind beyond the senses. "Eyes and ears are bad witnesses for people if their souls are barbaric." In this sense, Heraclitus considered himself a prophet of intelligible Truth, hence his tone of the oracle as a specific mode of expression. The highest goal of human knowledge for him is the knowledge of the plan of the Logos.

7. "Weeping Philosopher". Any legislation that regulates human relations must draw its foundation from the Law that governs the Cosmos. However, the moral and religious concepts of his contemporary society, just like the laws of his native city, seemed to Heraclitus not only conditional, but downright false, fundamentally corrupted. The deep pessimism of the "weeping" philosopher had a cosmological and ethical basis. The world is an extinct, descended Deity, individual souls are filled with particles of divine Fire that have forgotten their divine origin. From childhood, people learn to create iniquity according to the law, falsehood according to the truth, they learn to deceive, steal and debauchery, worshiping the one who is most successful in falsehood and violence. Everyone has indulged in madness and greed, everyone is chasing an illusory happiness, no one heeds the law of the Logos-God, does not know the word of Truth. Whether people hear it or not, they do not understand it and, like donkeys, they prefer straw to gold. The very knowledge they seek is vain knowledge, for their hearts have no desire for truth. People seek a cure for the evils of their lives, but their doctors are worse than the diseases. If any of them get sick, they call for doctors: they cut, burn, drain the sore spot and demand a reward for the same thing that illnesses do. Has anyone sinned, they bring bloody sacrifices, thinking to wash their dirt with their mud; they pray to the walls on which the images of the gods are written, not knowing what these Gods and Heroes really are.

All human social laws and moral requirements relative but their basis is the absolute divine Laws. For example, war is evil, but war is also a necessity at this stage of human development: it makes some heroes, and even gods, others ordinary people, some free, others slaves. The visible misfortunes and sufferings it causes are not evil in the absolute sense of the word, for just as a doctor sometimes torments the body he heals, just as wool beaters beat, tear and wrinkle their wool to make it better and stronger, so people endure sorrows, not realizing their need. There are many opinions, but the Reason is one, the divine Law is one, and all human laws on which human society is based must be fed by this Law. Justice is known in them, one should stand for their protection, as for the walls of one's native city. But people are reluctant to obey this Law, they cannot stand superiority, they reject teachers, not recognizing that one is sometimes worth a thousand if he is the best and knowledgeable.

Heraclitus of Ephesus is one of the most senior ancient Greek philosophers.

His main merit is the creation of the original dialectical doctrine, thanks to which this method of philosophizing and thinking in general has become widespread.

Heraclitus was known to contemporaries and followers as "Dark" or "Gloomy", which characterized his philosophy and way of life.

The teachings of Heraclitus, as contemporaries also noted, opposed the philosophy of Democritus, another ancient thinker. Heraclitus left only one work - "On Nature", from which only a few dozen fragments of quotations have come down to us.

It is known that the essay consisted of three parts - "On Nature", "On the State" and "On God". Despite such a modest legacy, Heraclitus was recognized as one of the most prominent scientists of the ancient world, his teachings influenced many thinkers, from Aristotle and especially Plato to modern philosophers.

The main ideas of the teachings of Heraclitus

1. Fire as the root cause of all things, the main substance of which the universe consists.
2. The idea of ​​"world fire". It happens regularly, as a result of which the universe dies, then to be reborn again.
3. "Everything is a flow." Heraclitus is credited with the expression "Everything flows, everything changes."
4. Opposites are identical to each other.
5. Violation of the law of contradiction.

Zoroastrian roots of the teachings of Heraclitus

One of the main provisions of the philosophy of Heraclitus is fire as the root cause of all things. This provision was introduced not just in line with the search for the primary element, which was carried away by the oldest of the Greek philosophers: fire is a sacred substance in Zoroastrianism, the ancient Persian religion.

The fact that Heraclitus was familiar with the teachings of Zarathustra is evidenced by at least the legends about his death, according to which he “became the prey of dogs” or “lay down, smearing himself with dung, and so died”; this means that he was buried according to Zoroastrian customs. Little is known about the life of Heraclitus.

He was born and died in Ephesus (544 - 483 BC). It is believed that he came from a family of basileus - kings-priests, but he refused power and privileges, hated people and went to live in the mountains, where he ate "only grass and byl". He lived alone, but Melissus, a student of Parmenides, appeared to him, who then introduced him to the people of Ephesus.

Heraclitus said about himself that he has knowledge of the true structure of the universe, of which man is a part. In his opinion, Logos dominates in nature, which means order, harmony, proportionality. Logos is also the criterion of the truth that man can cognize.

Evidence for the Unity of Opposites

The unity and identity of opposites is another important idea of ​​Heraclitus. He proves it with several examples. So, the water in the sea is both the cleanest and the dirtiest: for fish it is a nutrient medium, but for humans it is unsuitable for drinking. A man bathes in water, and a pig in mud. Different aspects of the same thing can be opposites: for example, a writing system (for example, Greek) is considered both linear (in the direction of the line) and round (in the shape of the letters).

Heraclitus and Christianity

The teachings of Heraclitus, on the one hand, had a direct impact on Christianity. On the other hand, in some of its aspects it is similar to Christianity, although it is not a direct predecessor: both teachings in these aspects are based on Zoroastrianism.

From Heraclitus, Christians borrowed the doctrine of the Logos as the “divine order”, the idea of ​​the impermanence and frailty of the material world, the idea of ​​the “end of the world” (however, it could also come directly from Zoroastrianism - from the same place from where Heraclitus took it).

Just like Heraclitus, Christians revere the "divine fire", supposedly descending from heaven during "Easter", as well as presented in the form of church candles; this too is a clear borrowing from the religion of Zarathustra. The image of a hermit living alone in the mountains (analogous to the desert) and indulging in philosophical reflections (including talking about God) inspired the ancient Roman poor to create the folklore image of the "savior" - Jesus Christ.

Heraclitus of Ephesus, son of Bloson, an Ephesian, "acme" (heyday - about 40 years old) who falls on the 69th Olympiad (504-501 BC), was apparently born c. 544, year of death unknown. Even in ancient times, he was nicknamed "Dark" for the difficulty of his style and "Weeping", because "every time Heraclitus left the house and saw around him so many people living badly and dying badly, he wept, pitying everyone" (L. LXII; DK 68 A 21). He owned an essay called "The Muses", or "The Infallible Rule of the Charter to Live", or "Index to Morals", or "The Single Order of the Order of Everything". The traditional title is "About Nature". Most likely, however, the book had no title at all. According to Diogenes Laertius (IX, 5), the work of Heraclitus of Ephesus was divided into three arguments: about the Universe, about the state and about the deity. 145 fragments of the work have survived (according to Diels-Kranz) (after fragment 126 are doubtful), however, it is now believed that "over 35 should be completely or partially excluded either as later falsifications, or as weak paraphrases of genuine fragments" .

Fragments of Heraclitus produce a dual impression. If some of them, justifying the glory of their “dark” author, are really difficult to understand due to their aphoristic form, often similar to the statements of an oracle, then others are crystal clear and understandable. Difficulties in interpreting the fragments, associated with their poor preservation, are also born from the influence of the doxographic tradition, especially the Stoic interpretation, sometimes "inscribed" in the fragments themselves or in their immediate context. Considerable difficulties are generated by the dialectical way of thinking of Heraclitus of Ephesus, who sees in every phenomenon its self-negation, its opposite. Hence, first of all, formal-logical difficulties.

Teachings of Heraclitus

Reconstruction of the teachings of Heraclitus of Ephesus requires an analytical division of the corpus of its fragments into thematically defined groups, followed by their synthesis into a holistic view. These main groups are statements about fire as the beginning, about logos, or law, about opposites (dialectics), about the soul, about gods (“theology”), about mores and about the state.

As a starting point for the teachings of Heraclitus on the cosmos, a fragment of DK 22 V 30 can be rightfully accepted: and it will be an ever-living fire, kindling by measures and extinguished by measures.” This is a clearly expressed basic position of Ionian philosophy: the cosmos is a modification of a single principle, naturally passing, changing, into various forms. The beginning of Heraclitus of Ephesus is “eternally living fire”, the changes of which are similar to commodity exchange: “everything is exchanged for fire and fire for everything, as goods are exchanged for gold and goods for gold” (B 90). This sociomorphic turnover, although reminiscent of the mythological sources of philosophy, in this case is practically devoid of mythological correspondences, representing only an analogy of natural and social processes.

In the teachings of Heraclitus, the idea of ​​a world circulation is quite clearly outlined. The process, endless in time, is divided into periods (cycles) by world fires, as a result of which the world dies in fire, and then is born from it again. The length of the period is 10800 years (A 13). If in time the cosmos “lighting up and dying out by measures” is infinite, then in space it is apparently limited (see A 5).

Logos of Heraclitus

The internal regularity of the world process is expressed by Heraclitus of Ephesus and another, more special concept - "logos". “Although this logos exists forever, it is inaccessible to the understanding of people either before they hear it, or when they hear it for the first time. For everything proceeds according to this logos, and they become like the ignorant when they proceed to such words and such deeds as I set forth, dividing each according to its nature and explaining its essence. From the rest of the people, what they do while awake is hidden, just as they forget what happens to them in a dream ”(B 1). Confident that he has learned the truth, Heraclitus expresses dissatisfaction with people who are not able to accept his teaching. The meaning of the teaching is that everything in the world is done according to a certain law - the logos, and this logos itself “speaks” to a person, revealing itself in words and deeds, in phenomena perceived by the senses and revealed by the mind. As for people, with this law, “with which they have the most constant communication, they are at enmity, and what they meet daily seems alien to them” (B 72. It is possible that the connection with the logos established by Mark quoting Heraclitus of Ephesus Aurelius, who understands it stoically, as a controlling principle, had some other meaning in Ephesus).

Heraclitus. Painting by H. Terbruggen, 1628

The ambiguity of the word “logos” in Heraclitus - and it means both the word, and speech, and the story, and the narrative, and the argument, and the teaching, and the account, and the calculus, and the ratio, proportion, etc. - does not allow it to be unambiguously conveyed some one word of the Russian language. The closest thing here, perhaps, is the meaning of "law" - the universal semantic connection of being. It is no coincidence that logos as a law of being is put in relation with the social sphere: “Those who want to speak rationally should strengthen themselves with this common (logos. - A. B.), just as a city is [fortified] by law, and much stronger. For all human laws are nourished by one divine one, which extends its power as far as it wishes, dominates everything and prevails over everything ... Therefore, it is necessary to follow the general. But although the logos is universal, most people live as if they had their own understanding” (B 114, B 2). The parallel of Heraclitus is indicative: “fire is gold (money)” and “logos is the law of the city”. She clearly speaks of the relationship of fire and logos as different aspects of one and the same being. Fire expresses the qualitative and changeable side of the existing, logos - structural and stable; fire - exchange, or exchange, logos - the proportion of this exchange, although not quantified.

So, Heraclitus' logos is the rational necessity of being, merged with the very concept of being = fire. And at the same time it is destiny, but essentially transformed. For the mythological consciousness, fate acted as a blind irrational force. It could be fate (fatum), but there could also be a case personified in the image of the goddess Tyche (Roman Fortune). The logos of Heraclitus of Ephesus is reasonable, this is the “reasonable word” of nature speaking to man, although not accessible to everyone. What does she say? “Not to me, but listening to the logos, it is wise to recognize that everything is one” (B 50). The unity of the diverse nature is not immediately revealed, for "nature loves to hide" (B 123). And yet there is this unity. True, two fragments seem to contradict this idea.

The first of them reads: "Aion is a playing child, placing checkers: the kingdom of a child" (B 52). But what does the polysemantic word aion mean here? This is hardly the “eternity” of most Russian translations; the text of Heraclitus of Ephesus is too archaic for this. Could it be "time", as Burnet translates? It is doubtful, then "chronos" would suggest itself here, and then the fragment would sound like a polemic against Anaximander's thesis about the temporal order of emergence and destruction. Lebenszeit (life, lifetime, age), how does Diels translate? Closer to the point, but then the fragment becomes mysterious, even meaningless. Apparently, we are still talking not about the life of the cosmos, but about the life and fate of an individual person: “the lot [of a person] is a playing child, [his life] is the kingdom of a child”, so one could freely convey this fragment, expressing a fairly well-known idea about the fact that “fate plays with a person” and “what is our life? - a game!". As if the recognition of the absence of a world pattern - the logos?

Fragment 124 reads: “It would be absurd if the whole sky and each of its parts were ordered and consistent with the mind in appearance, and in forces, and in circular movements, and in the beginning there would be nothing like that, but, as Heraclitus says, "the most beautiful space [would] be like a heap of rubbish scattered at random." The words in quotation marks belong to Heraclitus and are inscribed in the text of Theophrastus. It is difficult to find an unambiguous and acceptable interpretation of this text for everyone, especially since the Heraclitus fragment itself does not fit into the context of Theophrastus. However, it seems that we are confronted by Heraclitus of Ephesus's opposition of the universal logos, the world law inherent in "loving hiding" nature, and that visible world order, which, in comparison, is like a heap of garbage. However, it follows that Heraclitus more clearly than the Milesians, realized and singled out two planes of being: the immediate, cash existence of things and its inner nature - the logos. Their relationship is expressed through the concept of harmony, even two harmonies: "hidden" and "explicit". Moreover, “hidden harmony is stronger than explicit” (B 54). But harmony is always the harmony of opposites.

Dialectic of Heraclitus

And here we move into the sphere dialectics.

Already by the fact that the largest group of fragments of Heraclitus of Ephesus is devoted to opposites, the basis of dialectics, one can judge the central position of this problem in the teaching of the Ephesian. The unity and "struggle" of opposites - this is how one can abstractly express the dialectical structure and dynamics of existence. Unity in Heraclitus is always the dialectical unity of the different and the opposite. This is stated in the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise “On the World”: forming consonance not from the like, but from opposites, nature combines male and female, forming the primary social connection through the combination of opposites; art, imitating nature, creates images by mixing colors, and creates musical harmony from a mixture of voices. “The same is expressed by Heraclitus the Dark: “Connections: whole and non-whole, converging and diverging, consonant and discordant, and from everything one, and from one everything” ”(B 10). The same idea is expressed in B 51, where harmony is illustrated in the ambiguous image of the bow and lyre, and in B 8, which is now recognized as a paraphrase of B 51, but contains an important addition - "... everything happens through a struggle."

Ancient, and even many modern interpreters of the philosophy of Heraclitus of Ephesus often find his dialectical statement about identity opposites. However, many of his examples are quite clear. “Good and evil [are one and the same]. In fact, doctors, says Heraclitus, cutting and burning in every possible way, demand more than this payment, although they did not deserve it, for they do the same thing: good and disease ”(B 58). Or: "The way up and the way down is the same" (B 60); “Donkeys would prefer straw to gold” (B 9). No less clear is the example of the shameless phallic hymns to Dionysus, which are sacred to those who worship this god, or that "the most beautiful ape is disgusting compared to the human race" (B 82). All these sayings express the extraordinary dialectical flexibility of the thinking of Heraclitus of Ephesus, the fluidity, versatility and ambiguity of his concepts, or rather, verbally formed ideas and images. In every phenomenon, he seeks the opposite of him, as if cutting every whole into its constituent opposites. And after dissection, analysis follows (according to the main rule of dialectics) synthesis - struggle, “war” as the source and meaning of any process: “War is the father of everything and the mother of everything; some she determined to be gods, others people; some she made slaves, others free” (B 53).

Apparently, this idea was already expressed by the Milesians. One might think that this was Anaximander's idea - but for him the struggle of opposites seemed to be an injustice, for which the perpetrators "are punished and receive retribution." Heraclitus writes: “You should know that war is universal, and truth is a struggle, and that everything happens through struggle and out of necessity” (B 80), almost quoting, in the last words, the book of Anaximander. The meaning of this extremely important proposition about the universality of the dialectical struggle of opposites is three, that the struggle is the driving force, the cause and the “culprit” (aitia means both) of any change.,

This is indicated, in particular, by fragment B 88: “In us there is one and the same living and dead, awake and sleeping, young and old. For this, having changed, is that, and vice versa, that, having changed, is this. This is how Heraclitus of Ephesus approaches the idea of ​​the universality of change. This idea was perceived by antiquity as the credo of Heraclitus, and with it the image of the “fluid”, dialectical thinker entered history. "Panta rhei" - "everything flows" - although this phrase is not among the original fragments of Ephesus, it has long been attributed to him. “You cannot enter the same river twice” (B 91) - this is how his own words sound. But it does not at all follow from this that Heraclitus is an apologist for variability as such. He dialectician: in change and fluidity he sees the stable, in exchange he sees the proportion, in the relative the absolute. Of course, these phrases are a translation of the teachings of Heraclitus into modern philosophical language. The own language of Heraclitus of Ephesus did not allow any more clear abstract expression of these thoughts, because he operated with polysemantic words, flexible ideas, rich, but complex and vague symbolic images, the meaning of which is often lost.

First of all, Heraclitus of Ephesus does not yet know the term "opposites" - it was introduced by Aristotle. Heraclitus uses such words as diapherpmenon, diapheronton - "divergent" (B 51, B 8) or to antizoyn - "warring, striving in different directions." These are descriptive, not conceptual expressions. The expressions of such concepts as movement (flow, flow), change (exchange, exchange, turn) are just as descriptive and figurative. Even the "logos" - the most formalized of the concepts of Heraclitus philosophy - is not only a law, but also fire, and reason, and one ... Therefore, the dialectical teaching of Heraclitus of Ephesus appears before us not as an abstract theory, but as an intuitively discerned picture of the world, where concrete-sensual, "living" opposites coincide. This is a clear reminiscence of mythological thinking, constantly operating with opposites. But at the same time - the picture is rationalized, thought out, often clearly and clearly outlined. In it, as we shall see below, those socio- and anthropomorphic images of divine beings, which constitute a necessary attribute of myth, have already been removed. At the same time, the dialectic of Heraclitus of Ephesus, as the doctrine of opposites "in the very essence of objects," prepared classical Greek philosophy with its not spontaneous, but conscious dialectics.

Heraclitus' doctrine of knowledge

Philosophy inevitably raises the problems of human consciousness and cognition. Like the Milesians, Heraclitus of Ephesus associates them with the activity of the "soul", and the latter with some natural element. Namely: "souls evaporate from moisture" (B 12). The soul fits into the cycle of substances in this way: “For souls, death becomes moisture, and death becomes earth for water; from the earth, water is born, and from the water, the soul” (B 36). Let us add to this fragment B 76 (1), which says that “fire lives on earth with death, and air lives on fire with death; water lives the air by death, earth lives the water [death]." From this it immediately becomes clear that the soul by its nature is in Heraclitus air or a subtle and mobile evaporation. Depending on how far it is removed from moisture; the soul acquires special qualities - "dry radiance - the wisest and best soul" (B 118), while the drunk "staggers and does not notice where he is going, for his soul is wet" (B 117). There are reasons, therefore, to think that, in its "airy" nature, the soul of man and animals is akin to cosmic air, which in this connection turns out to be "reasonable and thinking", "divine" mind. By drawing it into ourselves, we become intelligent. In sleep, when the human mind is separated from the environment, we forget; upon waking up, the soul regains reason, just as coals heat up and glow, approaching the fire, and go out away from it (see: Sextus Against Scientists, VII, 126-131).

The last image, which links the soul no longer with moisture and its evaporation, air, seems to contradict what has been said. However, apparently, this is nothing else than another side of Heraclitus of Ephesus' understanding of the "soul" - its comparison with fire as the first principle - not the observed and sensually perceived fire, which was discussed in fragment B 76 (1), but fire as a philosophical, "metaphysical", in the language of later philosophy, the beginning. This, of course, is nothing more than the germ of opposing philosophical knowledge as “metaphysics” (that which is “behind physics”) to “physics” itself, but it makes sense to note it. The soul in this aspect is a modification of the single and living "nature of things" and cognizes it only by joining it, to its logos, and to the extent that this communion has taken place.

Heraclitus is a favorite object of research for both ancient biographers and modern scientists. They tried to separate the dark philosophical doctrine from the no less dark and mysterious biography. Hence the nickname of the philosopher - Heraclitus the Dark or Heraclitus the Gloomy. The key point in the study of life, and especially death, of this philosopher was an extraordinary antipathy, turning into hatred, which he causes in the souls of readers and biographers.

Hostility, understandable to a certain extent, reaches unprecedented heights when Heraclitus dies, buried in excrement. In order to understand this death, one should consider in detail the traditional biography of Heraclitus, since the reaction of biographers to the interpretation of the philosophical works of Heraclitus and their interpretation for a true understanding of the life and details of the death of this mystery man is important.

Childhood and youth

Heraclitus was born in the city of Ephesus (lands belonging to present-day Turkey). The exact date of birth of the philosopher is unknown, approximately 540 BC. Traditionally, Heraclitus is considered a descendant of the ruling family of Androclus, according to other sources, the name of the philosopher's father is Heracon or Bloson. As a child, the boy was no different from his peers, he played money with other boys (an analogue of the game of dice).

But the young man was not happy with the prospect of inheriting the power of his father. According to historians, he renounced the right to inherit in favor of his brother, and he himself lived and indulged in philosophical reflections in the temple of the goddess Artemis, continuing to periodically play dice with the children.

Information about the life and teachings of the philosopher from Ephesus has come down to our times from the writings, which acted as a biographer of the philosophers of antiquity. Diogenes in early texts interpreted this act as proof of Heraclitus' generosity, and later called it pride, arrogance, arrogance, or even contempt.

Thanks to these character traits, Heraclitus later became a misanthrope. Thus, understanding the works and philosophy of Heraclitus begins with these personal qualities. Heraclitus had neither teachers nor followers, except for Cratyl from the city of Athens.

Heraclitus often said that teachers would not teach wisdom to students, otherwise they would have taught both Xenophanes and. Another saying is that Homer deserved to be persecuted and beaten with a cane in poetry contests. This demonstrates the dominant character traits and personality of Heraclitus - arrogance and contempt for people. The reason for this attitude is simple - these people did not achieve wisdom, according to Heraclitus.

From his youth, the philosopher considered the people around him to be uneducated and stupid. He did not take part in the conversations of other philosophers, he had his own views on everything with a clear extremist bias, as evidenced by the expressions of the philosopher that have come down to us. Confirmation is also served by the main ideas of the philosopher that the source of development in the world is war, and the death of one creature gives life to another. Later, the melancholic-Heraclitus was placed in contrast to the laughing sage.

Philosophy and teaching

The views of Heraclitus are mysterious and ambiguous. Almost all of his works have an ambiguous interpretation. In addition, the original works have not survived to the present, the worldview is known only from the works of other philosophers and scientists. Heraclitus had his own understanding of wisdom. He did not express thoughts directly - only in the form of riddles or hints. From here came the second nickname of Heraclitus - the philosopher-poet, he did not write in verse, but his thoughts were so metaphorical that they resemble a poetic style.

Only deeply educated and analytically thinking people had the ability to understand the works of the philosopher. He even wrote that he had analyzed only an insignificant part of the ideas of Heraclitus, but found them beautiful. In addition, the Ephesian philosopher invented a unique approach: to convey complex ideas in the form of extremely simplified examples, as a rule, these were processes occurring in nature.

So the followers independently came to the thought conceived by the philosopher or even their own unique conclusions. The contribution of Heraclitus to the development of ancient Greek philosophy was the introduction of the universal logos. Initially, the term was understood as both "saying" and "meaning". Now the logos reflects the meaning of being and the laws of everything that exists.

The Heraclitean doctrine of logos is a reflection of the picture of the world, where harmony is preserved along with dynamism. Thus, in the teaching of the philosopher, universal harmony is the cosmic Logos. But man is unable to understand it and considers his own word, his own Logos, to be higher than the universal.

Harmony lies in unity: as Heraclitus said, “everything flows”, matter transforms into various forms, but the Logos remains constant. The continuation of this thought was the quote “You cannot enter the same river twice”. In our time, this expression has acquired a new meaning, but still reflects the author's philosophical thought.

Heraclitus called the constant change and transformation of matter and substances the world current and believed that everything in the world not only undergoes constant transformations, but also has opposites. The philosopher presented the dialectics of the human soul as follows: the soul consists of two components - noble (fire) and ignoble (water). It was the fire of Heraclitus that was the beginning.

Heraclitus also introduced the concept of "world fire", in which the cosmos is destroyed in order to be reborn again. The theory of the destruction of the cosmos was refuted in the 18th century, and Schleiermacher did not recognize fire as the original element. In contrast to the Heraclitean laws of matter transformation, the main ideas of another ancient Greek philosopher - Parmenides, who lived in the same period of time, are that matter is unchanging, constant and homogeneous.

In the IV century BC. supporters of natural philosophy, put a new meaning into the term "logos", depriving it of ontological meaning. And the followers of the school of Stoicism returned the cosmic essence to the Logos. By the way, the term "cosmos" was also introduced by Heraclitus. Some researchers classify Heraclitus as a natural scientist, not a philosopher. This is explained by the fact that the only work of Heraclitus that has survived to this day is called "On Nature".

The work looks like hundreds of individual fragments of statements, the interpretation of which was carried out by the philologist Herman Diels. In the work "On Nature" Heraclitus laid the foundations of the theory of atomism. Heraclitus' contribution to science became premature, according to some authors. The scientist introduced the concept of an atom as the smallest structural element, resolving the paradoxes of the Eleatics, the philosopher developed the concept of differential calculus.

According to his ideas, even the soul of a person consists of atoms, which, after physical death, are transformed into another matter - the so-called theory of atomism. Heraclitus human anatomy corresponds to the structure of the world: the body is built from the same atoms as the world around, and the main organ of the human body is the stomach. The laws of nature of the physical world and the human soul, discovered by Heraclitus, formed the basis of the Milesian school, whose representatives were Pythagoras, Thales.

Personal life

The problems of Heraclitus in relations with society, consisting in his contempt for people, left their mark on the personal life of the philosopher. Heraclitus did not have a wife and children, since he spent his life in the temple of the eternally young and innocent goddess of fertility Artemis. Heraclitus also did not have students, as such - the problems of knowing the world, which he touched upon in his writings, were evaluated by scientists only after the death of the philosopher.

Death of Heraclitus

Contemporaries and researchers of Heraclitus are outraged not so much by the way of life, worldview and views of Heraclitus as by the details of the death of the philosopher. According to legends, Heraclitus died, smeared with manure, other stories say that his body was torn apart by dogs.

Records are considered the most reliable source of information, which states that dropsy of the abdomen (a disease in which excess fluid accumulates in the abdominal cavity due to diseases of the kidneys and heart) became the cause of the philosopher's death.

Bibliography

• Naturphilosophical theory of atomism
• The original form of dialectics
• "Muses"
• "About nature. Part 1. About the Universe»
• "About nature. Part 2. About the state»
• "About nature. Part 3. About the gods»
• "The infallible rule of the charter to live"

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. The ancient Greeks represented her as 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. The main organ of the 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.