Heraclitus  

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Heraclitus of Ephesus (English Heraclitus the Ephesian) (ca. 535–475 BC) was a pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher, popularly known as the philosopher of tears.

Heraclitus is known for his doctrine of change being central to the universe, and that the Logos is the fundamental order of all.

The weeping philosopher

Diogenes Laertius ascribes to Theophrastus the theory that Heraclitus did not complete some of his works because of melancholia. Later he was referred to as the "weeping philosopher", as opposed to Democritus, who is known as the "laughing philosopher". writes correctly, Sotion in the early 1st century AD was already combining the two in the imaginative duo of weeping and laughing philosophers: "Among the wise, instead of anger, Heraclitus was overtaken by tears, Democritus by laughter." The view is expressed by the satirist Juvenal:

"The first of prayers, best known at all the temples, is mostly for riches .... Seeing this then do you not commend the one sage Democritus for laughing ... and the master of the other school Heraclitus for his tears?"

Subsequently they were considered an indispensable feature of philosophic landscapes. Montaigne proposed two archetypical views of human affairs based on them, selecting Democritus' for himself. The weeping philosopher makes an appearance in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. And so on.

Panta rhei, "everything flows"

Πάντα ῥεῖ (panta rhei) "everything flows" either was not spoken by Heraclitus or did not survive as a quotation of his. This famous aphorism used to characterize Heraclitus' thought comes from Simplicius, a neoplatonist, and from Plato's Cratylus. The word rhei (cf. rheology) is the Greek word for "to stream, and to the etymology of Rhea according to Plato's Cratylus."

Compare with the Latin adages Omnia mutantur and Tempora mutantur (8 CE) and the Japanese tale Hōjōki, (1200 CE) which contains the same image of the changing river, and the central Buddhist doctrine of impermanence.

See also

The following articles on other topics contain non-trivial information that relates to Heraclitus in some way.

• Cratylus
• Dialectical monism
• Dialectics
• Dualism
• Ephesian School
• Quotes of Heraclitus (Apospásmata)
• Heraclitus' Influence on Hegel
• Introduction to Metaphysics
• Ionian School (philosophy)
• Logos
• Marcel Conche
• Metaphysics (Aristotle)
• Nondualism
• Ontology
• Pandeism
• Pantheism
• Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks
• Philosophy of space and time
• Process philosophy