Heraclitus

COSMOLOGY: "Unity of Opposites"

• •ordered universe is a unity brought about by required balance of opposite tensions.
• •describes change as 'unity in diversity'
• •change from opposite to opposite characteristics is perpetual
• •Fire is the 'regulative medium' (analogous to money)

Fragment 12: "Upon those who step into the same rivers different and again different waters flow"

EPISTEMOLOGY: "Reason is the Universal Law"

• •The process of change is product of God's universal "logos"
• •Reason is the chief activity of man (of all)
• •wisdom is a practical knowledge
• •wisdom = seeing all things from a divine viewpoint
• •if there is a unity between the one and the many, then all our thoughts are God's thoughts -- we share a common stock of knowledge.
• •People are naturally disagreeable; they "sleep" (thoughtless/ignorant). How this is possible is not explained.

Fragment 101: "I sought out myself"

(familiar Greek concept of "Know Thyself")

ETHICS: "The Average"

• •The mean (balance) is always constant; one must contiually adapt to the changing circumstances to find the mean.