Today, we're going to start our exploration of heraclitus one of the most intriguing of the pre-socratics who's still having? a huge influence on philosophy even now He flourished about 500 BC he lived in or near the great city of ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor and He had a reputation even in his own lifetime for being Particularly tricky and difficult and eccentric and he was known as the riddler and the obscure he lived outside the city most of the time because he purported to despise the human race and Occasionally he would come in though to the marketplace in ephesus, and he would expound fragments of his work which baffled people or probably And was probably designed to baffle people. He wrote mainly in paradoxes and elliptical Aphorisms here are a couple of examples Mortals are immortals immortals immortals Living their death dying their life That's it make about what you will here's another one the Eternity is a child at play playing [drafts]. The kingdom is a child absolutely [beautiful] and rather reminiscent of a passage in one of the gospels, but again He just sort of tosses these things out that's people making them what they will so where do we start? Well, we do know the very first [ether] Ism in his book. We do know. How his book began We don't know the order of the rest of the paradoxes But we do know this opening quote and it goes as follows and I'll explain the key word logos in a moment it is of The logos which is thus always uncomprehending our humans Both before they have heard it and when they first hear it Now what an extraordinary way to start your work? How do we interpret this let's start with this word logos of the logos which is thus always? Uncompromising a human's now log off in the greek-english Lexicon [goes] on for [pages] it can mean the Divine Ordering principle of the cosmos as we would say log off with a capital L though at this stage of Greek culture all writing within capital letters, so we don't get a clue it can mean Human reasons it can mean the products of human reasons such as a book or an argument it can mean all these different [things] so if heraclitus talking about The divine order of the cosmos when he says that humans don't understand it is he saying that People are not going to understand the book he's about to quote from the book that he's written is he saying something [to] do with Human language is he saying we don't understand our own language What is he saying and in the course of our exploration of heraclitus? I hope to persuade you that in fact He's interested in logos both as a divine ordering rational principle of the cosmos but also in its expression in Human thoughts human language and his own book. I'm going to try and combine this meta physical interpretation looking at reality with this notion of human language and Heraclitus [his] book So that's the first question how do we interpret [marcus] the second question is aristotle the later philosopher Aristotle himself notes is this word always it's placed in heraclitus as text between of the logos which is thus and Then and I'm comprehending, so of the logos which is thus always on handing a Human's and Aristotle says well this heraclitus [is] all very obscure we don't know whether always goes with the logos of the lagos [witches] or always stuff or Humans being uncompromising We don't know whether he's saying that humans always fail to understand the Nagas which is [it's] as aristotle and aristotle gets quite annoyed But again as I hope to show you in the course of our [investigation] I think heraclitus has deliberately placed This word always in an ambiguous Position in the text because he wants it [to] go both with the logos and with the uncompromising humans That [log] off is always of a certain kind But humans always fail to understand it both before they have heard it and when they first hear about it So that's the second [question]. What does always go with The third question is why is heraclitus starting his work With a sentence which at least that one level could be of my book which is thus always? Humans are always Uncomprehending why does he say you're not going to understand what I'm going to tell you even when I've told you about it Why is he trying to [annoy] people or baffle people in this way is he trying to? Select the audience in that way that we were discussing in our introduction to the pre-socratics Or is he saying something else as well [is] he saying there is something about human nature About the human capacity to understand which means that we will inevitably always fail to understand the deepest secrets of the cosmos is there something about the limitations of Human knowledge that he's really Interested in here and again, I hope to try to convince you that he's interested in All of these things so that just the opening sentence. He's already we've got me hooked So we've got this work consisting of aphorisms and paradoxes with this baffling beginning. How do we start to? Get to grips with it. Well. There are some themes that I think we can Locate within the work and one of these themes is relativism we know that at [least] at [one] level and I say that deliberately because we may see later on there are different levels to his thinking, but at least at one level heraclitus believes that our Take on the cosmos is influenced by all Sorts of relative perspectives So for instance your geographical location is very important he writes the road up and down is one and the same if you're at the bottom of the road it's going to be the road up if you're Starting at the top. It's going to be the road down But it is of course always the same Road Time is also hugely important your position in time One of heraclitus is most famous quotes is of course you cannot step into the same river twice We don't know if he actually said it in those words. That's what we get from a later quote in plato we do know that heraclitus says you step and you do not step into the same river x' The idea being that because the waters are always flowing in the river because [the] banks of the river are always being eroded The Stones are being smooth away And moved around it's going to be slight changes in the course of the river over time so is it the same river What allows [us] to keep calling the tens the tens if it's always slightly different from day to day We're going to be coming [back] to that question, but so time enormous, [ly] important also your pSychological state Is very critical to how you appreciate the world he says that? sickness makes health seem sweet and good hunger: satiety, weariness: rest you will appreciate Your health and a good meal and a [good] sleep [all] the [more] if you were ill or hungry or tired Beforehand so these things your position in space your position in time your pSychological state What species you belong to all these things are going to be very critical at least at one level for how you? appreciate the cosmos relativism is one key theme in Heraclitus another key theme is that of flux the notion [that] at least at one level at least at a surface level? Everything is always flowing Changing moving on another famous heraclitus quote is everything flows Pantera in the Greek now as the River Paradox has already indicated if you think That everything is flowing Then a relativist Perspective on the world is going to stir naturally from that because if everything is always moving on everything's always changing Your perspective on the cosmos will always be slightly different so we can see how the themes of relativism and the themes of flux Connect up very closely but flux poses a lot of problems firstly, what kind of flux does Heraclitus have in mind does he mean that everything is? Changing all the time, and if so at what rate? Does he mean that everything is simply changing? Intermittently with periods of sort of stability in between or does. He simply mean that everything is subject to change? Again, we're not told we have to interpret that for [Ourselves], so that's one [big] question about flux and the our answer to that question will affect how we answer the next question which is what the relation between this theory of flux and what we would call the issue of personal identity and how identities are created and Destroyed and its really as a really interesting question because at one level Heraclitus thinks that flux that movement Creates identity so that if the river wasn't moving wasn't flowing it wouldn't be a river It would be sort of an immensely long lake With access to the sea at one end I suppose There's another paradox about Barley drink and this is a drink That usually has well has barley in it of course but also usually eggs and to stop it from curdling the cook had to keep stirring it on the stove on the fire and again this notion that the drink is only created through constant movement [if] you stop the Movement it will separate into its different parts, so in a sense flux change Movement create identity but also we can say well yes, but beyond a certain level a Change and is also going to Destroy identity there's going to be so much change that We're going to worry about whether you can still call it the same river if say there was an enormous Earthquake and the course of the River was really massively altered, or it was split up into Separate tributaries Or it was bits of it were dammed up would it still be the same river [could] you still call it by the same name it's a real question and We know that heraclitus is interested in this question because he says we step and we do not step into the same [River] and actually that quote goes on to say we are and we are not and I think he is showing us [that] he realizes that flux both creates, but also Destroys Identity and this is a question that has real ethical implications for our own lives because People change over time and you may make a promise to somebody saying at your wedding To a particular person who you know and who knows you Does that promise still have a hold over you? Years later [if] the person you made the promise to has been hugely altered [to] say by some tragic degenerative illness such as alzheimer's or through an accident or Are you still obliged to keep your promise of loving and cherishing? until Death Somebody who no longer recognizes you and maybe has been in a coma for [four] Ten years I? so there are real ethical implications to this question of what is the relationship between Identity and change all of us change all the time every [day] little bits of us rubbed off We acquire new beliefs. We forget some old beliefs in what sense if any are we the same person? What kind of obligations? Do our friends and relatives still have to us? So it's not [just] a fascinating metaphysical question it's a really important ethical question as well both these themes of relativism and flux fantastically Embodied in another of heraclitus as central ideas which is the idea of fire the importance of fire? So there are all sorts of quotes in which fire plays a central role The cosmos always was and is and shall be an everliving fire Kindling and measures and going out and measures he writes and also All things are an exchange for fire and fire for all things as gold is for [goods] and Goods for gold and the Thunderbolt [steers] all things Now what does he [mean] by fire here is? He referring to it as a kind of material entity does he think that far is literally the basic stuff of the cosmos as for instance Faa's and other the first pre-socratic thought that the cosmos was basically comprised of water and Anaximenes wrote that air is the basic constituent of the cosmos is that what heraclitus is doing or Is fire supposed to be a kind of metaphor for all sorts of other ideas and his thought or both it could be both Because just think how perfectly far embodies so many of his central themes Fire is always flickering It's always fluctuating and moving so it's perfect for flux it also appears differently from different perspectives it both creates and Warms and illuminates on the positive side of course it can also destroy and it always Transforms it is a profoundly Transformative entity so absolutely perfect as an emblem of so many of heraclitus Motifs and just think imagine you're an ancient greek and you're living in a greek village in the country out in the mountains imagine how important fire is going to be in your life, not only is it the only way of Creating illumination after dark apart from the Moon and the Stars far [is] all you've got But far again is an absolutely central image in the blacksmith forge in the Baker's oven where people would take their dough for You know to bake in the communal oven its plays a crucial role in religious rituals [and] again far is created at this time through friction Through roughing sticks together and as we're going to see in a later discussion of heraclitus War strife Friction are absolutely fundamental elements of his thought so fire has come the completely perfect emblem to sort of sum up Heraclitus's thinking. In a way he's trying to create a philosophy of fire if you like Heraclitus [has] theories of relativism flux and fire all have really interesting implications For his theories about language and the importance of human language which takes us back to where we started Because language is one of the ways as we saw of translating [logos] the opening theme of his book so if we live in a world of flux and change in shifting perspectives Where does that leave human language does it mean that we can't ever? Accurately map out the world and divide it up into discrete identities because how would you do that because? Identities are always shifting, and maybe can't even form in the first place Or does [it] mean that we have to really? Hang on to human language [as] our only means of creating any even Spurious sense of order To help us negotiate our way through this confusing shifting disorientating flux so Flux Perspectivism and language as I said you could come at it two ways it might you might think heraclitus theories make language less important because they limit the possibilities of what humans can do with language or how much we can know and Express through language or you might say no, it's the opposite humans desperately need language to Give them any kind of stability Whatsoever otherwise. We're really on a shifting sea, and we're completely [lost] now we're going to be exploring these key relationships between flux and perspective ilysm on the one hand and Language and the law ghosts on the other in our next discussion of heraclitus and we're going to find out I think that not only is language lagos Absolutely key to heraclitus thinking, but his choice of the Paradox form to Express his philosophy is completely vital that if he chose any other way of Expressing his he would be committing what we call pragmatic self refutation Ie he would be refuting the essence of his philosophy through his means of expressing that philosophy and So Paradox is not just going to be an attractive interesting add-on for heraclitus I think we're going to find that Paradox is the heart of what he's going to be telling us So today, we're going to continue our exploration of heraclitus [in'] it's time to consider in More depth Why he chooses to write in the Paradox form? paradoxes go against power in the Greek Common opinion or belief that [stock] [sir] in the greek for example heraclitus writes Immortals are Mortal mortals immortal living their death dying their life Why does he choose to write in such an obscure and wriggling way is it to capture attention? select an audience be memorable Now I think all these are important reasons if you consider that he's speaking literally in a marketplace in ephesus, and he's competing for attention with Rapid reciting Homer's Iliad and odyssey Politicians or auratus so all those are important reasons however I hope to suggest to you today that there are also other Deeper reasons why heraclitus chooses this form reasons that I think go to the heart of the relationship that we've already discussed between Lagos as the governing principle of the cosmos and [lagos] as a language Now we'll be returning to these reasons for heraclitus choice of the Paradox form throughout this discussion but first we need to consider again, the importance to the heraclitus of opposites tension and strife He writes one should know that war is common that justice is strife that all things come about By strife and necessity and this of course partly accounts [for] [the] central role that Fireplace and heraclitus --is thought because apart from its destructive Potentialities fire at this time in the Greek world was generally created through friction But this strife is not chaotic it appears to be Regulated and balanced probably by the logos itself and in one of his most famous [Danes] heraclitus right they do not understand how Differing it agrees with itself it is a backward turning connection like the bow or the [lyre] The idea seems to be that you need to create the perfect Tension [in] the string of the archers bow or the musicians lyre in order to have control over the arrow or the note? So the apparent tensions and conflicts that we mortals witness in fact help to form a deeper unity God is Day/night winter summer War [peas] hunger say shitty all the opposites that is his meaning You can [therefore] view something as both one and many, and I think this might [be] what is meant by the following Combinations he writes holes and not holes concurring differing Concordant discordant from all things one and from one all things But this deeper unity is difficult for immortals to perceive witness another aphorism nature loves to hide itself now I'm wondering whether These points have relevance for heraclitus choice of the Paradox form in which opposite Adjectives are combined within the single unit of the sentence for example the road up and down is one and the same in other words the Paradox form in some sense mirrors the structure of the logos the Paradox Form may also suggest the inevitable limits of the Mortal perspective we can never obtain the complete God's eye view so heraclitus also writes to men some things are just Another's unjust but to God all things are good and just if heraclitus wrote in plain prose he might appear to be Claiming an objective knowledge that as a mortal he can never have So he needs to find a way of writing down. His ideas which do not lay him open to the charge of pragmatic self refutation Perhaps human language can only ever be paradoxical and metaphorical Perhaps Mortal limitations for the reason why we do not understand the logos even after first hearing it as the opening fragment may suggest Perhaps as mortals we can never fully understand the [locust] This may explain aristotle's later complained that heraclitus flout the law of non-contradiction But it may be that heraclitus is not actually denying that the law exists at least at one level but if they can humans ever be confident of applying it in practice But even so maybe we can still make [some] progress because maybe the reason of individual humans is Our spark of the divine of higher making us microcosms of the Macrocosm now if that's so then the more we improve and hone our rational powers then the greater our chance will be of Seeing more of the complete divine picture never all of it because we're [shillings], but more of it We can make progress Maybe this explains Why heraclitus says that we should search inside ourselves? because we contain part of the divine logos within us in the form of our reason and Perhaps this is another reason why heraclitus chooses the Paradox form because it Forces us to puzzle things out actively for ourselves and in the process Improve our part of [log-off] that's logos botha's reason and also as its manifestation and language So here again, we can see language playing a crucial role for heraclitus It is one of the manifestations of the divine cosmic logos So to return to the question with which we've started perhaps, we're not meant to choose between logos as cosmic principle and log offers reason and language in the opening fragment [I] think that heraclitus wants us [to] carry both meanings in our lives an Interesting question arises here in respect of how heraclitus views himself does [he] see himself as Mortal or divine? Or as I think as [immortal] who nevertheless? Has a much fuller understanding than most and can therefore act as a guide to the rest of us the possibility of improving our understanding Also, has profound ethical implications It's vital that we continually search and remain open As heraclitus says unless one hopes for the unhoped-for one will not find it One of the reasons I personally love heraclitus Is that he makes life infinitely more exciting as well as more complex as he says The sun is new every day
