 Never had the world known such a misanthropic yet profound philosopher as it did with Heraclitus. With a pessimism rivaling that of Schopenhauer and a melancholy often so severe that it earned him the enigmatic nickname, the Weeping Philosopher. Who was this obscure man? What were his beliefs and why did he harbor such contempt for his fellow man? Before we get into exploring Heraclitus, make sure to subscribe to the channel if you would like to learn more about Eastern and Western philosophy. Heraclitus was born around 540 BCE in the Greek city of Ephesus. Beyond this bit of information, not a whole lot is known about his personal life. However, his philosophic ideas were passed down through numerous different fragments, 115 to be exact, from various different philosophers, historians, and theologians of antiquity. These individuals range from Plato and Aristotle to Marcus Aurelius in Sextus and Pericus. The fragments covered a wide array of topics from political and ethical issues to mere contempt for those who lacked understanding of what he believed to be true. This contempt was widespread and covered just about all his contemporaries and predecessors. He said that, for all whose discourses I have heard, there is not one who attains to understand that wisdom is a part from all. Most he thought were too stupid to understand his words and even gives warning to his readers that they will likely not understand. According to Aristotle, Ionians were, in general, material monist who took some form of matter as the ultimate reality. In any change in the world, they attributed to that particular form of matter. Heraclitus took fire to be the primordial element out of which everything else had risen. This in contrast to contemporaries' tales who claimed water and inexemnities who claimed air. All things are in exchange for fire and fire for all things, as goods are for gold and gold for goods. This fire is constantly changing and ever living, sort of like a process instead of a substance. As to the soul, he regarded this as a combination of fire and water. The driest soul is the best and wisest, while a soul tainted with water is dead or dying. Throughout antiquity in the modern age, Heraclitus is best remembered by his theory of perpetual flux. Perhaps the most famous is his quote regarding the river. He said, on those stepping into water staying the same, other and other waters flow. In this cryptic fragment thought to be the only genuine fragment regarding the river from the book of Heraclitus, he is thought to be conveying that some things stay the same only by changing. This in contrast to popular opinion believing that all things are changing so that we cannot experience them twice. Flux is not so much the destruction of Constancy, but a necessary condition of it. To better understand this, think of what defines a river. If its water ceased to flow, it would have to be redefined as a lake, a pond, or simply a dry riverbed. In this case it is the perpetual flux of the water that maintains the Constancy of the river. In the same way, if our human body ceased to change, we would cease to be living human beings and would eventually return to its basic elements. Despite this apparent universal remodeling, Heraclitus proposes that there is a single unchanging force that governs these changes. He calls this overseeing force the logos, and fire is a physical manifestation of the logos. And according to Heraclitus, once somebody understands the logos, the path to true knowledge is free and clear from obstruction. Let us move on to a doctrine which he called the mingling of opposites. This doctrine sets out to explain the paradoxical and extricability of opposites. The paradox is a special case of this doctrine, showing how things are the same and not the same over time. For him, unity only results from diversity, and in strife opposites combine to produce emotion and harmony. He gives several examples in this fragment. The same thing is both living and dead, and the waking and the sleeping. And the young and the old, for these things transformed are those, and those transformed back again are these. While these qualities are not the same simultaneously, they are the same in respect that they constitute a complete system. Because of these numerous paradoxes brought about when setting forth his thought, he gained yet another peculiar nickname, the Riddler. Very little is known of his life, and while he is largely known through quotations, his philosophy, melancholic as it is, is nonetheless profound. Out of the countless hours of research done by the authors of whom I took my information, this video would not be possible. If you would like to know more about Heraclitus, make sure you check in the description for the books and e-sources that I use to compile this video. I would also like to know which of the pre-Socratic philosophers you find most interesting. Make sure you like the video and subscribe if you want to learn more about Eastern and Western philosophy. And as always, thank you for talking philosophy with me. Until next time.