Old Man River - Heraclitus

-Heraclitus (c. 535-475 BC) can be thought of as the ultimate representation of what the Pre-Socratics were all about. 
   -Wrote a book, "On Nature" (popular title at the time).
      -Full of one-liner observations:
         -"The path up and down are one and the same."
         -"Sea water: healthy for fish, unhealthy for man."
         -"Everything changes and nothing remains still ... and ... you cannot step twice into the same stream."
   -Was nicknamed "the Riddler" and "Heraclitus the Obscure".
   -From Ephesus, Ionia (modern-day Selçuk, Turkey).  However, unlike many of the other Pre-Socratics, it seems as if he never really traveled much; he just mainly chilled in his hometown.
-In the opening passage of his book, Heraclitus talks about logos.
   -Technically it just means "word" in Greek, but is way more complicated than that, and doesn't translate well into English.
   -Can also mean "account", "reason", "proportion", "measure", etc.
   -It's where "-ology" comes from in English.
   -Heraclitus in this opening passage says that the logos that he speaks of is something that nobody understands, even when they are told of it.
      -People go through their life unaware of this logos, even though it is staring at them right in the face the whole time.  This is a shame because this logos is the logos that will explain everything in "nature" (the natural world), or everything.
   -Later in the book he says something along the lines of- "Hearing not me, but the logos, it is wise to agree that all things are one."
   -Surprisingly mysterious passage when analyzed. 
      -Does this mean that we shouldn't believe him just because he's saying it, but instead we should believe him because he's it's obviously so true. 
         -Several other theories have been proposed too, and this is more confusing because Heraclitus liked to play around with double meanings of words and shit.
   -The idea that "all things are one" is called "monism", and it looks like Heraclitus was the first to come up with this concept in Western philosophy.
      -However, it seems like Heraclitus believes in both the unity AND multiplicity of everything, not going so far as to say that "everything is one", but that "all things are one". 
         -Nature is a whole, but is made up of many different things.
-Heraclitus' core idea: the unity of opposites.
   -Our perspective assigns only one value to something, rather than grasping the multiple values of something all at once.  However, not everything is so clear as to what is obviously opposite.
      -This is where his most famous idea is introduced, which addresses the nature of chance.
         -He uses the example of this weird barley wind and cheese drink mixture that the Greeks liked to drink at the time, and pointed out that if it wasn't stirred it would fall apart.
            -Like this, the unity of nature was achieved through opposition; everything was involved in this war. 
               -Stability resides in change, and unity in opposition.
-The idea that Heraclitus' theories being opposite of Parmenides, who believed that change is an illusion, may have been Plato's fault, which he might have presented in order to make them contrast with each other more as opposites.
   -This may not have actually been Plato's fault, as it seems like there were followers of Heraclitus who believed in the impermanence of everything and that change is the only constant.
   -It's most likely that Heraclitus believed in constant change, but also that in this change things remain stable and unchanging as well. 
      -For example, gold's value depends on the context in which it is possessed (like by a human compared with a donkey), but it still retains these changing qualities despite the change in possession.  Or, a river might be a different river each time you step into it, but it's still a river.
   -Thus, it kind of expands on Anaximander's principle that it is the constant struggle within the apeiron which creates a balance, and that this struggle is best exemplified or symbolized with fire.
      -Believed that the sun, moon, and stars were "bowls of fire" which are turned towards us, so that we can see into the bowls.
         -The moon waxes and wanes because the bowl is slowly turning.
      -Heraclitus' beliefs about the cosmos were perhaps influenced by the teachings of Thales.
-Also believed that the human soul was literally fire, and that we die because our soul has turned into water.  Also, when we get drunk we act pathetic because the alcohol somehow dampens the fire of our soul (haha).
   -Souls being fire kind of makes sense due to body temperature when were' alive and stuff.  Also, a fire needs oxygen to live, as does anything living.  However, fire isn't necessarily a flame, but maybe more like a warm, dry cosmic energy.
-Last, it's worth noting that Heraclitus also wrote about politics, saying that we should obey laws, protect them, etc., for they are divinely inspired!