Heraclitus is a famous philosopher in ancient Greece. The philosophy he advocated is legendary. Among them, eternal living fire, the flow of all things, and the unity of opposites are the core of his thoughts. The following is an introduction to the philosopher Heraclitus that I have collected. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Introduction to the philosopher Heraclitus

Heraclitus (about 530 BC - 470 BC) is a representative figure of the Ephesian school. A legendary ancient Greek philosopher. Heraclitus was born into a royal family in the Ionian city-state of Ephesus. He was supposed to inherit the throne, but he gave the throne to his brother and went to live in seclusion near the temple of the goddess Aldymes. King Darius once wrote a letter inviting him to teach Greek culture at the Persian court. Heraclitus was the first philosopher to propose a theory of knowledge based on the teachings of Pythagoras. Heraclitus' "Logos Theory" believes that all things are always changing, and this change occurs according to certain measures and laws. Heraclitus is known as one of the founders of dialectics because he was the first among ancient Greek philosophers to speak out the key points of dialectics in simple language. Heraclitus wrote "On Nature", a fragment of which has survived for later generations.

Heraclitus is a legendary philosopher. He was born into a royal family in the Ionian region. He was supposed to inherit the throne, but gave it to his brother, and went to live in seclusion near the temple of the goddess Aldymes.

Persian King Darius once wrote a letter inviting him to teach Greek culture in the Persian court, but Heraclitus arrogantly refused. He said: "Because I have a fear of greatness, I cannot go to Persia. I am content with the small things in my heart." ?

Someone asked him why he remained silent, and he replied: ?Why? So that you can chatter about it!?

Although these anecdotes are not entirely credible, they are enough to show that Greece Philosophers have begun to withdraw from public affairs, but Heraclitus has not completely withdrawn from politics.

When the city-state of Ephesus banished his friend Hermodoro, he angrily said:

?Every adult in Ephesus had better Hang him and leave the city to the young man who still maintains his innocence. ?To this end, he called on the people to stand up and defend the law together and eradicate tyranny.

It is said that when he lived in seclusion, he lived on grass roots and plants, and later suffered from edema. He went to the city to find a doctor and asked the doctor in a riddle if he could make the rainy day dry.

The doctor didn’t understand what he meant, so he ran to the cow pen and tried to use the heat of cow dung to suck out the water from the body, but to no avail? Heraclitus’s theory emphasized mysticism, but he also Different from ordinary mysticism. He believes that the origin of all things is fire, that all things in the world are produced by fire, and will return to fire when they perish. He said: This universe in which all things are unified was neither created by any god nor anyone. It was, is, and will be an eternal living fire that burns according to a certain measure and extinguishes according to a certain measure. ?

He also believed that the human soul is composed of water and fire. Fire represents nobility and water represents lowliness, so the soul should be dry. Drunkness makes people happy, but it also causes the soul to become wet. If it turns into water, it means the soul is dead.

These theories of Heraclitus are similar to Nietzsche, and they all reveal a sense of arrogance. It can be seen that he believes that people should control their own destiny and opposes indulgence and pleasure.

The philosophical thoughts of the philosopher Heraclitus

Eternal Living Fire

? This ordered universe (Cosmos) is the same for all things , it was neither created by God nor man. It was, is and will always be an eternal living fire, burning according to a certain measure and extinguished according to a certain measure. ?

Heraclitus advocated that fire and all things can transform into each other, but did not explain how the transformation was carried out. This reflects his philosophical obscurity and mysticism. He believes that there is a certain measure and the idea of ??logos in the burning of fire.

Reason: Fire is the most exquisite of all elements, and the thing closest to being incorporeal; more importantly, fire is both moving and can make other things move.

Heraclitus believed that the origin of all things is fire, and said that the universe is an eternal living fire. His basic starting point is: this ordered universe was created by neither gods nor humans. The universe itself is its own creator, and the order of the universe is determined by its own logos. This is the essence of Heraclitus's theory, which is the inheritance and in-depth development of the simple materialism thought of the Milesian school.

Everything flows

Heraclitus has a famous saying: One cannot walk into the same river twice? This famous saying means that the water in the river is constantly flowing. Yes, when you step into the river this time, the water flows away. The next time you step into the river, new water flows in. The river keeps flowing, so you can't step into the same river. Obviously, this famous saying has a specific meaning and does not refer to the difference between this river and that river.

Heraclitus advocated that "all things move" and "all things flow", which made him an outstanding representative of the "fluid school" with simple dialectical thinking at that time.

This famous saying of Heraclitus shows that objective things are eternally moving. Such a truth is changing and developing. Engels once commented: This primitive, simple but essentially correct world view is the world view of ancient Greek philosophy, and it was clearly stated for the first time by Heraclitus: everything exists and does not exist at the same time. Because everything is flowing, constantly changing, constantly coming into being and disappearing. ?Heraclitus also believed that things are transformed into each other. Cold becomes hot, hot becomes cold, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet. He also explicitly asserts: ?We walk down the same river without going down it. We exist and yet we do not exist. ?

Logos Theory

Heraclitus believed that all things are forever changing, and this change occurs according to certain measures and laws. This is his doctrine of logos, the second aspect of his dialectical thought.

The movement of all things, whether it is the burning and extinguishing of fire, the generation and mutual transformation of all things, are carried out according to certain logos; this logo is mainly a kind of scale, size, and proportion. , that is, a quantitative proportional relationship. Of course, this kind of scale is also a kind of law, but it is a little different from the generally mentioned general law. That is, scale is just a certain proportion and relationship that is mainly expressed in quantity, while the general law is not only expressed in quantity but also in terms of quantity. manifested in other aspects. From a level of abstraction, general laws are higher than scales. The development of human cognition is from the specific to the general. First, we discover more general things from specific things, and then go deeper into more general things. Therefore, discovering scales is the first step to discovering general laws. One step further from understanding scales can lead to understanding general laws. The logos proposed by Heraclitus is at this stage of human cognitive development? Cognitive scale and proportion.

Unity of opposites

The original unity is constantly moving and changing, and never stops. Its creation is destruction and its destruction is creation. One thing changes into another thing, such as fire into water, and the fire disappears into the new form of existence. In this way everything becomes its opposite, so that everything is a unity of opposite qualities. Nothing's properties remain unchanged, nothing has eternal properties. In this sense, everything exists and does not exist. Only with this kind of opposition can there be a world. For example, harmony in music arises from the combination of high and low tones.

The world is dominated by struggle. Heraclitus said, "War is the father of all and the king of all." Without struggle and opposition, the world would perish? stagnate or destroy. Only the unity of opposites and contradictions can produce harmony. ?Life and death, dreaming and waking, youth and old age, are the same thing. When the latter changes, it becomes the former; when the former returns, it is called the latter. ?

The contribution of the philosopher Heraclitus

Heraclitus is known as one of the founders of dialectics because he was the first among the ancient Greek philosophers to use dialectics. Someone who speaks the key points of dialectics in simple language.

Heraclitus’s dialectical thought is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

① He believes that all things are in constant motion and change, and puts forward the idea that "people cannot live twice" Step into the same river? This famous proposition illustrates it.

② He saw that the movement and change of things proceed according to certain laws, and was the first to put forward the idea of ??"logos".

③He saw that the movement and change of things are inseparable from the contradictory oppositions of the things themselves; although he himself did not explicitly put forward the proposition of "unity of opposites", he noticed various opposites A unified phenomenon, and put forward the idea that "struggle is the root of all things". These views made him the founder and founder of dialectics.

Heraclitus was an Ionian philosopher. He inherited the tradition of the Milesian school and believed that material elements are the origin of all things. He believes that the origin is eternal living fire, emphasizing that it itself is non-stop movement. Fire is transformed into all things, and all things are transformed into fire. In this regard, he developed the Milesian idea of ??origin forward.

Heraclitus’s development in philosophical thought is mainly reflected in dialectics. Although his dialectical thinking was still simple and intuitive, it was very profound at the time. First of all, he proposed the idea that things are constantly moving and changing, and everything flows. The discussion of movement as a philosophical issue begins with him. The Eleatic school who followed him pointedly contradicted him by proposing that only things that are motionless are the real things that we can recognize. In this way, the relationship between motion and rest unfolds as an important issue in philosophy.

Heraclitus also believed that the movement and changes of things are carried out according to a certain scale and proportion, thus putting forward the idea of ??logos. Together with Pythagoras and his early school of thought who preceded him, he went from exploring the origin of all things to exploring the universal laws behind phenomena. This provides a broad field and far-reaching prospects for the development of human understanding, philosophy and science in Greece and even the entire West.

The core of Heraclitus’ dialectics is his idea of ??the unity of opposites.

Although the issue of opposition has been dealt with in the philosophy of the Milesians from the very beginning of Greek philosophy, and the Pythagoreans have also listed the tables of opposites; however, it is necessary to explore the mutual relationship between opposites philosophically. , but it started with Heraclitus. From natural society and daily life, he simply saw that the two opposing sides are interdependent, unified, transforming and interacting with each other, and put forward the idea that struggle is the father and king of all things. He is worthy of being the founder of dialectics.

Although later philosophers had no real understanding of Heraclitus’ theory of the unity of opposites in theory, in practice, discussing various issues related to opposition has always been an important aspect of Greek philosophy. content. Many important philosophers, such as Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, etc., have proposed and discussed the relationship of the unity of opposites in their own way, and in some aspects reached similar conclusions to Hercules.

Heraclitus can be said to be the first philosopher to raise epistemological issues. He attached great importance to sensory experience, and was the first to raise the question of whether feelings are reliable, and also proposed that people have different wisdoms. In this regard, it can also be said that Heraclitus was the first person who turned philosophy from completely discussing the external world to also studying cognition and the subject of cognition? People.