![]() Being limited to one point of view, one will fail to understand that the logos steers all, not just oneself. Sea-water, he argues, is foul for people but life-sustaining for fish donkeys value garbage more than gold. In the fragment of the fish and the fragment of the donkey, Heraclitus provides clear examples. An individual who is subject to that order may feel that some aspects are unjust and others just, but that is a consequence of the individual’s limited experience. Because all things are ordered according to the logos, and the logos is one and the same for all, everything is part of an order. the logos.) The idea is that to the logos, there is nothing that should not be. What is meant by that is best illustrated in the following fragment: “For god all things are fair and just and good, but people have taken some things as unjust, others as just.” (The use of ‘god’ is misleading, but it is here understood as what is alone and beyond all things i.e. This is answered by the second claim, that the logos is beyond any man or deity. One might then wonder whether the logos, while being one for all things, exists for the sake of all things equally. Perhaps it manifests itself in different ways, but the order that drives each entity seems to be a microcosm of the logos that drives all things. If we understand the word ‘logos’ to mean an order, a guiding principle, then it follows that the logos is present in all things. These happenings of nature and human life seem to be unrelated, but each has in it a certain order. In yet another fragment, he describes the transformation between water and earth as a measured process. Elsewhere, Heraclitus applies a similarly fateful language to assert that “all humans laws are nourished by a divine one”. In another fragment, he writes that the sun “will not transgress his measures”, and suggests that it too is bound to follow a certain divine rule. Heraclitus writes that “the change of the cosmos”, supposedly the movement of the celestial bodies, is regulated by a “certain order”, even a “certain fated necessity”. This could be understood as ‘the same for all humans’ or as ‘the same for all that there is’ it will be argued that the latter interpretation is more justified. The first claim, then, is that the logos is “the same for all”. This fragment introduces the four main characteristics of the logos, around which our analysis will be structured: the logos is the same for all, it is beyond all things, it involves a process of change, and it is akin to fire. We do so by looking at a most compelling fragment: “The logos, the same for all, no god nor person has made, but it ever was and ever will be: fire ever living, kindled in measures and in measures going out”. Understanding Heraclitus’ philosophy requires understanding his concept of the logos. Then, it will be shown that the very substance of Heraclitus’ philosophy impedes him from offering a unified account through his writings yet, in the end, his body of work successfully exemplifies his philosophy and becomes a part of the logos. In the first place, this essay will explore how Heraclitus’ philosophy is unified through his concept of the ‘logos’. Yet, the developed argument should be able to account for them all. Due to the considerable quantity of Heraclitean fragments, it will not be possible to explicitly engage with each of them. There is a delicate interplay between his understanding of the world and the way this understanding can be expressed – these two poles inform and limit each other. Yet, as this essay will argue, Heraclitus very much has a unified philosophy. And, still, everything heavily depends on the way one chooses to read them. By attempting to organize the fragments one can find the broad strokes of a doctrine, but even then many fragments remain out of place, unable to provide concrete truths to serve the main idea. ![]() Heraclitus’ writings are fragmentary, seemingly unordered, manifold in meaning, if not downright deceptive. ![]() Does Heraclitus have a unified philosophy?
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