Abstract
With an astonishing economy of language, surrounded by a palpable silence, Heraclitus surgically cuts through the miasma of thought, guiding thinking past the quagmire of its own making. The vast empire of thought is brushed aside by a few sharp insights running like scalpel through tissue. It brings us to the point in our journey where we are enabled to make a few deductions that follow in the ensuing chapter. Pitting the intentionality of thought against an imperturbable Innocence Heraclitus brings thinking to its knees. Portraying Nature as “playing dice,” Heraclitus makes nonsense of the idea of cultural progress. Observing that thought looks everywhere but into itself, Heraclitus opens the main ontological window away from cultural constructs and devious arguments. Demanding that we remain prepared and open to the unexpected, Heraclitus shows us the creative abyss that awaits the seeker of essence. And finally, denying that human nature can, by itself, ever apprehend truth, Heraclitus makes the all-important gesture toward a divine nature that encompasses all. Thus thinking is forced to contemplate necessity.
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- 1.
Heidegger , What Is Called Thinking , trans. Fred D. Wieck and J. Glenn Gray (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), p. 184.
- 2.
Parmenides , “On Nature ,” in Early Greek Philosophy , ed. John Burnet, 3rd ed. (London: A & C Black, 1920).
- 3.
Heraclitus , “Fragment” 101 (εδιςησαμην εμεωυτόν), in William Harris, Heraclitus : The Complete Fragments (Vermont: Middlebury College, 1987). This text follows the authoritative Diels Kranz listing.
- 4.
Ibid., Fragment 41.
- 5.
Cell differentiation , for example, begins from a single cell. Thus the complex organism arises from the same basic essence .
- 6.
Immanuel Kant , Critique of Judgment, trans. J.C. Meredith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952), p. 54.
- 7.
Heraclitus , Fragment 108.
- 8.
Immanuel Kant , Critique of Pure Reason , eds. P. Guyer and A. Wood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. xix.
- 9.
Ibid., p. 8.
- 10.
The ancient Indian thought in the name of Advaita Vedanta attempts this through the practice of ‘neti, neti’ or negation of the sensible.
- 11.
Andrew Davidson, The Love of Wisdom : An Introduction to Philosophy for Theologians (New York: SCM Press, 2013), p. 213.
- 12.
Benedict de Spinoza , “Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect,” in The Collected Works of Spinoza, ed. and trans. Edwin Curley, vol. I (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), para 1.
- 13.
The philosopher Gilles Deleuze introduces Spinoza the man in the following terms: “This frugal, propertyless life, undermined by illness, this thin, frail body , this brown, oval face with its sparkling black eyes how does one explain the impression they give of being suffused with Life itself, of having a power identical to Life? In his whole way of living and of thinking , Spinoza projects an image of the positive, affirmative life, which stands in opposition to the semblances that men are content with. Not only are they content with the latter, they feel a hatred of life, they are ashamed of it; a humanity bent on self-destruction, multiplying the cults of death , bringing about the union of the tyrant and the slave, the priest, the judge, and the soldier, always busy running life into the ground, mutilating it, killing it outright or by degrees, overlaying it or suffocating it with laws, properties, duties, empires-this is what Spinoza diagnoses in the world, this betrayal of the universe and of mankind.” Gilles Deleuze , Spinoza: Practical Philosophy , trans. Robert Hurley (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1988), p. 12.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 19.
- 15.
Heraclitus , Fragment 103.
- 16.
“Every particular thing, like the human body , must be conditioned by another particular thing to exist and operate in a fixed and definite relation; this other particular thing must likewise be conditioned by a third, and so on to infinity (I. xxviii). As we have shown in the foregoing proposition, from this common property of particular things, we have only a very inadequate knowledge of the duration of our body ; we must draw a similar conclusion with regard to the duration of particular things, namely, that we can only have a very inadequate knowledge of the duration thereof.” Benedict de Spinoza , The Ethics , I. Prop. XXXI.
- 17.
Deleuze , Spinoza, p. 22.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Ibid., pp. 24–25.
- 20.
Heraclitus , Fragment 91.
- 21.
Deleuze , Spinoza, p. 123.
- 22.
Spinoza , Ethics Bk III, ed. and trans. James Gutman (New York: Hafner Press, 1949), prop. XXIII.
- 23.
“It is true that Spinoza’s method is synthetic, constructive, and progressive, and that it proceeds from causes to effects. But this does not mean that one can establish oneself in the cause as if by magic. The “proper order” does go from cause to effects, but one cannot follow the proper order immediately. Synthetically as well as analytically, obviously one starts with the knowledge of an effect, or at least of a “given.” But while the analytic method seeks the cause simply as the condition of the thing, the synthetic method seeks, not a conditioning, but rather a genesis, that is, a sufficient reason that also enables us to know other things. In this sense, the knowledge of the cause is said to be perfect, and it proceeds as quickly as possible from the cause to the effects. At its beginning, synthesis does contain an accelerated analytic process, but one that it uses only for reaching the principle of the synthetic order. As Plato said, one starts from a “hypothesis” and goes, not towards consequences or conditions, but towards the “anhypothetical” principle from which all consequences and conditions follow.” Deleuze , Spinoza, pp. 112–113.
- 24.
Martin Heidegger , What Is Called Thinking , trans. Fred Wieck and J. Glenn Gray (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), p. 58.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Ibid., pp. 65–66.
- 27.
This forward movement toward a future is what is usually extolled by thinking itself as progressive. What is fascinating is the self-congratulatory mode in which modern thought moves.
- 28.
Heraclitus , Fragment 52.
- 29.
Heraclitus , Fragment 70.
- 30.
Contrary to Heraclitus ’s image as an arrogant misanthrope built up by biographers, this points to a profound humility in his understanding of cosmic relations.
- 31.
Spinoza , Ethics , Book I, Note to prop. XVII.
- 32.
Fragment 125.
- 33.
G.T.W. Patrick, Fragments Attributed to Heraclitus (Baltimore: N. Murray, 1889), p. 26.
- 34.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali , the ancient Indian sage suggests that the only thing for the mind to do is to let thoughts subside: yogaha chittavritti nirodhaha, “yoga consists in the subsidence of mental formations.” It is the subsidence that leads to correct perception.
- 35.
Heraclitus , Fragment 125a.
- 36.
Ava Chitwood writes: “[This is] an addition that authors such as Kirk and Wilamovitz later questioned and rejected. Once we put the pieces of the mixed-drink anecdote together, two points emerge. First, by combining biographical elements of Heraclitus ’ work and character (such as reference to an authentic fragment, citation. Heraclitus ’ general contempt for his fellow citizens; and his refusal to speak generally or to those citizens specifically or to take their concerns seriously) with several biographical topoi ready to hand (such as the philosopher’s disdain for wealth; the philosopher who aids the state in time of crisis; and a silent version of the philosopher’s bon mot), we see how easily an illustrative anecdote is built upon a single fragment. Second, once the anecdote and its foundation fragment of the mixed drink were in place and accepted, an elaborated, second statement against wealth found its way into the text, winning at least limited acceptance.” Ava Chitwood, Death by Philosophy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004), p. 69.
- 37.
Heraclitus , Fragment 50.
- 38.
Heidegger , What Is Called Thinking , p. 73.
- 39.
Heraclitus , Fragment 72.
- 40.
Ibid., Fragment 112.
- 41.
Ibid., Fragment 93.
- 42.
Heidegger , What Is Called Thinking , p. 68.
- 43.
Heraclitus , Fragment 44.
- 44.
Heraclitus , Fragments 78 and 86 respectively.
- 45.
Heidegger , What Is Called Thinking , p. 34.
- 46.
Heraclitus , Fragment 18.
- 47.
Heidegger , What Is Called Thinking , p. 34.
- 48.
Heraclitus , Fragment 41.
- 49.
Heidegger , What Is Called Thinking , p. 25.
- 50.
Ibid.
References
Chitwood, Ava. Death by Philosophy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004.
Davidson, Andrew. The Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy for Theologians. New York: SCM Press, 2013.
Deleuze, Gilles. Spinoza: Practical Philosophy. Translated by Robert Hurley. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1988.
Harris, William. Heraclitus: The Complete Fragments. Vermont: Middlebury College, 1987.
Heidegger, Martin. What Is Called Thinking. Translated by Fred D. Wieck and J. Glenn Gray. New York: Harper and Row, 1968.
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. Translated by J.C. Meredith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by Norman Kemp Smith, 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1929.
Parmenides. “On Nature.” In Early Greek Philosophy, 3rd ed., edited by John Burnet. London: A & C Black, 1920.
Patrick, G.T.W. Fragments Attributed to Heraclitus. Baltimore: N. Murray, 1889.
Spinoza, Benedict de. The Ethics. Edited and translated by James Gutmann. New York: Hafner Press, 1949.
Spinoza, Benedict de. “Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect.” In The Collected Works of Spinoza, vol. I, edited and translated by Edwin Curley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.
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Roy, K. (2018). Among the “Presocratics”: Heraclitus. In: The Power of Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96911-4_5
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