Heraclitus' theory is based on Pythagoras' theory. He borrowed Pythagoras' concept of "harmony" and thought that there was a certain degree of harmony behind opposition and conflict, but coordination itself was not noticeable. He believes that conflict makes the world full of vitality. His main points are:
1. Eternal Fire of Life
"This orderly universe is the same for everything. It was neither created by God nor by human beings. It was, is and will always be an eternal living fire, burning on a certain scale and extinguishing on a certain scale. "
Heraclitus advocated that fire and everything can be transformed into each other, but did not explain how this transformation was carried out. This reflects his philosophical obscurity and mysticism. He believes that the burning of fire has a certain scale and logos thought.
Reason: fire is the most exquisite of all elements, and it is closest to things without form; More importantly, fire not only moves, but also makes other things move.
Heraclitus believes that the origin of all things is fire and the universe is an eternal living fire. His basic starting point is that this orderly universe was not created by God or human beings. The universe itself is its own creator, and the order of the universe is stipulated by its own logos. This is the essence of Heraclitus' theory and the inheritance and in-depth development of Militarism's simple materialism.
2. Everything flows
Heraclitus famously said that "one cannot walk into the same river twice". This famous saying means that the water in the river is constantly flowing. This time you stepped into the river and the water ran away. Next time you step into the river, new water will flow. The river keeps flowing, so you can't step into the same river. Obviously, this famous saying has its specific meaning, not the difference between this river and that river. Heraclitus advocated "the movement of all things" and "the flow of all things", which made him an outstanding representative of the "mobile school" with simple dialectical thought at that time.
Heraclitus' famous saying shows that objective things are always moving. Such a changing and developing truth. Engels once commented: "This primitive, simple but essentially correct world view is the world view of ancient Greek philosophy, and it was clearly expressed by Heraclitus for the first time: everything exists, but it does not exist, because everything is fluid, constantly changing, constantly producing and disappearing." Heraclitus also believes that everything is transformed into each other. Cold becomes hot, hot becomes cold, wet becomes dry, and dry becomes wet. He also clearly asserted: "We didn't go down the same river. We exist and don't exist. "
3. Logos Holy Language
Heraclitus believes that everything is always changing, and this change is carried out according to certain scales and laws. This is his logos theory and the second aspect of his dialectical thought.
The movement of everything, whether it is the burning and extinguishing of fire or the generation and mutual transformation of everything, is carried out according to certain logos; This kind of logos is mainly a scale, size and measurement, that is, the proportional relationship in quantity. Of course, this scale is also a law, but it is a little different from the usual general law, that is, the scale is only a certain proportion and relationship mainly expressed by quantity, and the general law can be expressed not only by quantity, but also by other aspects. In an abstract sense, the universal law is higher than the scale. The development of people's cognition is from concrete to general. First, we find more common things from concrete things, and then we go deep into more common things. Therefore, finding the scale is the first step to find the general law, and only by further understanding the scale can we know the general law. Logos proposed by Heraclitus is at this stage of human cognitive development-cognitive scale and proportion.
4. Unity of opposites
The original unity is constantly moving and changing, and never stops. Its creation is destruction, and destruction is creation. When one thing becomes another, such as fire becomes water, fire disappears into a new form of existence. In this way, everything becomes its opposite, so everything is unity of opposites. Nothing has the same nature, and nothing has the eternal nature. In this sense, everything exists and does not exist. With this opposition, there is a world. For example, harmony in music comes from the combination of high and low tones.
The world is dominated by struggle. Heraclitus said, "War is the father and king of all things". Without struggle and opposition, the world would die-stagnation or destruction. Only when opposites and contradictions are unified can harmony be produced. "Life and death, dreams and waking, young and old, are all the same thing. When the latter changes, it becomes the former, and when the former comes back, it is called the latter. "
The Relationship between Heraclitus Thought and Pythagoras School
Pythagoras school believes that the origin of all things is numbers, their existence and changes are based on the proportion of certain numbers, and the whole universe is an orderly universe composed of certain numbers. Heraclitus perfectly expressed the Pythagorean school with a simple concept of "logos". At this point, the thoughts of Heraclitus and Pythagoras are basically the same. We can say that during the 6th-5th century BC, the Greek philosophy represented by Pythagoras School and Heraclitus School had made a step forward than Miletus School, that is, they were not satisfied with seeking the origin of everything, but began to seek something with regularity hidden behind the phenomenon. They began to discover the proportional relationship in quantity, namely logos. This was a great development of philosophy at that time, and it was also one of their important contributions to the development of philosophy.