The Mind of Heraclitus

Heraclitus is often portrayed as an obscure thinker, disconnected from his predecessors, and contemptuous of his contemporaries. The alternative presented in this essay sees him instead as building on the notions of structure and justice from Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. Heraclitus develops the notions into a systemic logic that governs the complex dynamics of the world. A logic that he founds upon the principles of unity and opposition. A logic for which change is a principal constituent for the essence of the world. Can we step into the same river more than once? The pragmatic answer from Heraclitus is positive. The flowing of the water is in the essence and, therefore, in the identity of the river. The manifestations of forms are in motion because motion is in the forms.