 So Heraclitus is trying to answer the question, what's the unity and diversity as a way of answering the question, what does it mean to exist? OK, seems simple enough. Now, I suspect that some of you, at least maybe a little bit, laughed at Heraclitus' contention that you never step into the same river twice. And his point being that the river is constantly changing. Therefore, there isn't just one river, right? There's a succession of rivers, or succession of objects we call them all rivers. There's all this change. There is no unity. Now, everybody listening to this video has been to a river at least once. I mean, this is the Guadalupe River, right? I suspect maybe around half of you all have gone tubing at least once down the Guadalupe. You talk about the Mississippi River, the Missouri River, the San Antonio River. You talk about a variety of rivers, the Amazon, the Nile. These are all rivers. And you don't think that there's been just a succession, right? We're not calling it Guadalupe version 7,928, right? It's the Guadalupe River. All right, great. Then you can answer the question, what is the unity of a river? If you know that this river has been here for a while now, what is the unity of a river? Answer the question, what's the unity of this river? So what do you think? What's the unity of a river and the unity of this river? What is it about the river that stays the same amongst all the changes, right? The changes are the diversities. It's the diversity, right? So let's start with an obvious one. It's not the water. Well, at least this, if a river just is the water, there goes one Guadalupe. There goes another Guadalupe. There goes a third Guadalupe, right? It's a lot of quickly flowing water today. A lot of Guadalupe's passing by me, if all that a river is, is the water. So it's not the water itself. Well, what about the river bed? And so the bottom of the river, and it's got rocks, dirt, plants, right? The river bed is what never changes. Well, not exactly. I mean, the river is an erosive force. It pulls and pushes dirt, rocks, plants down the river. It carves out a trench in the land. The Guadalupe, you know, the Grand Canyon looks the way it does because of a river, a river flowing through it. So it's not the river bed itself because that's moving down, just maybe not as fast as the water, but it's also moving down just like the water. The rocks that are lining the edge here weren't always there. I think some of these are artificially placed. Now you see that tree over there. I don't know if you can see, there's a big old stump right there. That once was a tree. The dirt that's lining the bank, that's getting washed away. It's not the river bed. The river bed moves, changes, maybe not as fast, but just like the water, it changes. Okay, maybe it's the location, the path that the river takes. That changes over time. So the Mississippi River has changed a lot over the years. The Nile has changed a lot, a lot. One of the reasons why the Egyptians developed a geometry was to measure and redistribute land after the swelling and the recession of the Nile. So it's not the location or the width of the river. That changes depending upon the flow. Today we have a pretty high flow day, right? So the flow is not what remains the same. Today we have a pretty high flow day for the Guadalupe. But if we don't have a whole lot of rain, they don't open up the gates very much and we don't have as much flow. It's not whether there is water in the river. There are parts of the Rio Grande that are dried up and flow again after some time. I just heard somebody here just told me that further down, one of the lakes further down this river has dried up. If we want to say what makes the river or a lake, the fact that there is water in it, well then after it dries up, that lake is gone and after new water goes in, it's a brand new lake. I doubt that's it. It's not its location. It's not even a source. I mean, this source is pretty stable right now. It's a dam, right? The source of the Guadalupe right now is a dam, but it wasn't always this dam, right? Lake is an artificial lake. It was constructed by the Corps of Engineers. So right now the lake, the dam is the source of the Guadalupe, but it wasn't always the source of the Guadalupe. When you think about something like, I think it's the Colorado River. It sources all the many different springs that pop up after rain and snow. Snow melts in the mountains, that feeds the Colorado River. It's got lots of different sources. Not to mention the fact that big rivers like the Mississippi have very different tributaries. I'm gonna have tributaries right where, but rivers that flow into it. So even just trying to answer that just backs up the question. It's not the water itself. There's water in the, because for starters, they're not just water in there. That's not pure water. That's got quite a few different things flowing through this river right now that probably wouldn't wanna drink this water. It's not the form, right? I mean, I don't know, maybe you could say it's the form. What the unity of this river is the definition of the river. Well, first of all, I'm gonna want you to provide me with a definition that stands the test of time. That's one thing. Secondly, if the river is just its form, do you see the river? Because you don't see form. You never, ever, ever see form. Form is comprehended. If the river just is its form, you never step into the river because you never step into form. So it's not the water. It's not the flow. It's not even the direction of the flow. Because again, the geography changes. That's one thing to think about. But sometimes rivers reverse courses. And if we say a river just is this flow, once it reverses course, you got a brand new river and it goes back, you got another river. Usually it takes a geological event, but yeah, rivers can reverse their flow. So the unity of a river, it's not the water, it's not the direction, it's not the location, it's not the bed. It's not even the name, right? This wasn't always called the Guadalupe River, if this always did exist, right? So what is the unity of a river? If you could come up with an answer, I'd be curious to see it. So Heraclitus is trying to answer the question, what does it mean to exist? By answering a different question, what's the unity in diversity? It's a little bit more complicated than you might have thought. We already looked at trying to answer the question, what's the unity of a river? Didn't really come up with many good answers. Any answers that we did come up with imply that the river comes and goes, along with the water. Okay, well, so here's a further question. What's the unity of you? You think you've been around for at least 10 years. Some of you 18, some of you twice that, some of us, more than twice 18 years. All right, what is it that's remained the same that entire the time? What is it that hasn't changed, that's remained, that's been around for over 18 years? Well, you might have originally tried to answer this question by saying your body. Well, your body is a lot like that river we looked at. There's a flow of matter that goes through. Every last part of your body is composed of organs. Every last organ is composed of cells. Cells die off and new ones are generated. If we're gonna count the age of you by your oldest organ, which would be at best your oldest cells, well then you're about seven to 10 years old. That's your bones, your bones last that long. Most other organs are three, five years, something like this. I'm not the best biologist in the world, but it's around this number. So your skin, the oldest cells in your skin are around three years old. So I've got a scar on my hand here. I got this when I was a kid. So if we count the age of my skin or the scar by the age of the matter that's there, the skin that's there, well, this is only about three years old and it's been swapped out. That same scar has been swapped out by brand new scars dozens of times. So if all we are or what remains the same or try to answer the question of what we are by answering the question of what remains the same, not a whole lot remains the same or at least it doesn't last 18 some odd years. Your body, even your brain, right? It used to be kind of a standard belief or doctrine that your brain didn't generate new brain cells, new neurons. They knew they died off, but they didn't think that they generated new one. Well, recent evidence suggests that they generate those too. So even your neurons are replaced. So if what you are, what remains the same or try to answer the question of what you are, what remains the same if it's your body, well, then you're at most seven to 10 years old you replace something very much like you and something's gonna replace you soon enough. It's gonna be a lot like you, but it's not gonna be you. Maybe you say it's your mind. Well, your mind changes. You have different beliefs than you did when you're a kid. Shoot, you have different beliefs than you did when you're five years old. You're constantly adding to your beliefs. Even the values you have change, right? Those deeply held values. You'd be surprised how much those are gonna change over time. What you hold passionately to right now, you hold to it so strongly, you're not always gonna hold on to that. You'd be surprised how often that changes over the decades. Your personality changes. I already mentioned values if we're gonna count personality is, or excuse me, count your values as a function of or a constituent of your personality. Your personality changes, right? You don't react to things the same way that you did even probably even last year. Certainly five years ago, most definitely 10 years ago, I presume nobody here throws them or nobody listens to this video throws themselves on the floor pounding their fists in a tantrum of fury when they don't get their way. If you do, probably need to go get some help for that. Your personality changes over time. It's not done changing. What you think and believe right now, how you react to certain circumstances, your values, your emotional states, your emotional reactions, that's gonna change still. Your personality is not static. It's not your body. It's not your mind. Or what you are is your body, your mind. Well, you haven't been around that long. There's something that's gonna replace you. It's gonna be a lot like you, but it's gonna replace you. But it won't be you. Your will, your will changes. It diminishes. It's stronger one day from the next. Weaker the next, I mean weaker that day. So it's not your body and it's not your mind. Now, maybe try something like your soul. Okay, I mean you could try something like that, I suppose, but what do you mean by soul? If you mean something like your mind, your beliefs, your values, your emotions, guess what? That changes. So if it is your soul and your soul just is those things, well then you got a new soul every once in a while. If it's not those things, if it's not your mind, if it's not your emotions, if it's not your values, if it's not something like that, then what are you talking about? I mean, I can more or less perceive my emotions. I know when I feel angry and I know when I feel sad. I can more or less identify the beliefs I have and if I did a thorough enough history, I'd be able to figure out when these beliefs change. So I can identify or at least spot at least some of these emotions, at least some beliefs, at least some personality traits, but these things are identifiable. And if a soul is not one of these things, if it's not the beliefs, it's not the emotions, it's not the values, then you can't even see your soul. You can't identify it. What you are is fundamentally unknowable. Eesh, that seems scary. You know, we today use the soul in kind of a weird sort of way compared to the ancients. You know, we mean this ghost thing that drives the body and I have this little ghost that can go in and out of my body and that's my soul. Just like a really transparent version of you. That's due to the movies. It's not what the ancients meant by soul. The ancients meant something like life force might be a better way to describe it today, life force. Well, you know, so it's like a battery. It's not the mind, but what allows the mind to think. It's not the beliefs, but what allows the beliefs to become known. It's not the emotions, but what makes the emotions vivid or gives rise to the emotions within you. And if the soul just is a life force like that, okay, I mean, that's a way you can go. Strange consequence here is what you are in this life force, again, probably not something that you hold onto dearly, right? You hold onto your beliefs and your values with a clenched fist, but the force that does, that is not the same thing as those values but gives rise to them, it's different. Maybe it makes you wonder what I'm supposed to make one difference, make the difference between one soul or another. If it's just a life force. I mean, if it's a life force, it's something like a battery, right? You can swap out batteries. If you really are just this soul and it's not the same thing as the mind, it's not the same thing as the body, it's not the same thing as the emotions, it's not the same thing as the beliefs, it just gives you ability to use all these parts of you or it gives them force, gives them movement. Okay, but that's all the soul is. How do you know the soul isn't swapped out overnight, you know? Old souls depleted as a power source, it's pulled out and new souls put in. A soul is not seen. It's not heard or tasted out. I'm not saying a soul doesn't exist. Please don't get up in arms and riled up about this sort of thing. All I'm saying is if you try to identify the soul with something like your beliefs and values, would those change? And if that is what your soul is, okay, fine. I mean, you could do that but then the consequence is that your soul changes over time. If your soul is this life force, how do you know it's the same one? I'm not saying it isn't. All I'm saying is you're pointing to something. You say, I ask you the question, what is it that remains the same through the course of your life? I'm like, so the change is say, it's this life force. Like, great, how do you know it's there? It's like, well, I really don't. Okay, I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing but you haven't given me any reason to believe what you believe. You wanna say DNA? Well, if you really wanna say DNA, there are people, two different people with the same DNA, right? There's, I forget whether it's fraternal or maternal twins. It's one of the two, the same zygote. And even if we say what you are is from that body, well, there's, you know, with that sort of thing, well, twins are the same people because at one point they have the same body. Now, imagine this is a little bit frustrating by now. Well, imagine trying to be a philosopher. Philosophers have been trying to answer the question, what does it mean? You know, what is this unity, this personal identity through time? Not personal identity is in the sense of, you know, what do I identify with? But, you know, what is it that remains the same amongst all the changes? By the way, even when you identify with that, can and does change, you know? Philosophers were trying to answer the question, you know, ever since Heraclitus. What's this unity and diversity? We haven't come up with a non-controversial answer. There's lots of answers. We've got lots of different answers. Well, we haven't come up with one that's non-controversial. So if you're frustrated, you're not alone. But frustrated doesn't mean that we're simply just creating a problem for your answers. The problem's there. But I find it very interesting that we haven't been able to answer this question yet we often presume that we know what we are. Okay. If you know what you are, that's fine. Write it down. Let's see what you got.