The first thing I noticed when reading about Heraclitus is the arrogance and pride that his ideas or excerpts about humans exude. Unlike the tone used by Xenophanes, which has just enough pride to force his intended audience to look in the mirror, Heraclitus seems to pass the reasonable threshold being associated with blanket statements about humanity and some personal attacks on other great thinkers. Despite these attacks, his views of a creator appear to be influenced by both Xenophanes and the Milesians as seen in excerpts B114, B30, B90, B76, and B36. Heraclitus believes in one all-powerful law that created the world around him. Similar to Xenophanes, there is a lack of humanization within his one "logos". On the other hand, this logos is exemplified as fire just as the Milesians looked to water and aer as representations of their creative substance. The logos is the source of the physical and supernatural world. Additionally, this logos is constantly a part of our lives and can be realized by everyone through "understanding".
I did find it interesting how Heraclitus emphasizes understanding and wisdom over simply having knowledge, which relates back to our previous class discussion. Philosophy emphasizes understanding and discerning the "why?" and "how?" of a moral life over memorization of facts. This is part of what makes philosophy so important, because it forces students to think deeply about questions that they have never spent the time to answer. It allows students to think critically instead of practicing checklist memorization. Having done both in my life to a significant degree, I see how philosophy has made me a better thinker and allowed me to grow deeper in my faith. It has helped me gain understanding of the world and people outside the lens of science, which is something that other fields cannot offer. How do you think Heraclitus compares to the other Greek philosophers we have studied so far? Is he proposing something totally unique or are there certain ideas that he is influenced by?
-BaylorBear16
I'm glad you have that faith enriching experience with philosophy. I think Heraclitus is influences by all the preceding thinkers including the oracle at Delphi, but I think the way in which he blends or harmonizes those influences into a conception of Logos is radically different than anything that's come before.
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