Six Fragments of Heraclitus

The purpose of this research is to examine fundamental inferences to be derived from six fragments of Heraclitus. The plan of the research will be to set forth an interpretation of the meaning of each fragment, ranking their order of inferential argument from the most to the least fundamental, and then to discuss the basis for the order of inference so presented.

We step into and we do not step into the same rivers. We are and we are not.

We can directly understand this statement as a palpable fact. But we can also immediately understand that the statement about the river can be a metaphor for a purely rational understanding about other things that are always the same in one sense and always different in another. We have the advantage of human reason as a mechanism for coping with such intuitions about the universe, and from time to time cosmic mystery or nature yields to the application of reason. But complicating the mystery of nature is the fact that it is always in flux, always, as it seems, attempting to escape human attempts to come to final terms with it.

The literal, naturalistic interpretation of Heraclitus's statement about the river is that the molecules of water and the shape of its banks and stream never stand still. Today's flow of water for swimming becomes tomorrow's glass of water somewhere downstream, a function of the laws of physics. Thus at any given point along the stream, the river is never stable, always changing. And the water itself experiences chan

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as well as whether the cosmos itself has meaning. The wish for increased understanding, resolution, and meaning seems an unavoidable function of reason, humanity's highest achievement and greatest frustration. If the individual were truly a fully realized instance of life and meaning in the universe, it would be useless to speak of man's capacity for change, development, learning, and understanding. In other words, it would be useless to place any value on the faculty of reason, which distinguishes man from every other creature. And yet not only does man not understand the nature of the universe, he fails to understand his selfhood as well. New experience or knowledge that can be applied to future encounters with the universe--including with other creatures--is a function of reason that is as it were gainfully employed into a search for truth, knowledge, understanding, satisfaction, and all the rest. This fact appears to impinge on every feature of unfolding experience. It is necessary to know that war is common and justice is strife and that all things happen in accordance with strife and necessity. The unsettled, unpredictable quality of human experience--whether it is encountered and is visited on one, or whether it is activel

Category: Philosophy - S