Fragment 1
τοῦ δὲ λόγου τοῦδ ἐόντος ἀεὶ ἀξύνετοι γίνονται ἄνθρωποι καὶ πρόσθεν ἢ ἀκοῦσαι καὶ ἀκούσαντες τὸ πρῶτον· γινομένων γὰρ πάντων κατὰ τὸν λόγον τόνδε ἀπείροισιν ἐοίκασι πειρώμενοι καὶ ἐπέων καὶ ἔργων τοιούτων ὁκοίων ἐγὼ διηγεῦμαι κατὰ φύσιν διαιρέων ἕκαστον καὶ φράζων ὅκως ἔχει· τοὺς δὲ ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους λανθάνει ὁκόσα ἐγερθέντες ποιοῦσιν ὅκωσπερ ὁκόσα εὕδοντες ἐπιλανθάνονται
1. Although this Logos is eternally valid, yet men are unable to
understand it -- not only before hearing it, but even after they
have heard it for the first time. That is to say, although all things
come to pass in accordance with this Logos, men seem to be
quite without any experience of it - - - at least if they are judged
in the light of such words and deeds as I am here setting forth
according to its nature, and to specify how it behaves. Other
men, on the contrary, are as unaware of what they do when
awake as they are when asleep. (1) (from http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/Philosophy/heraclitus.pdf
This fragment from the great presocratic philosopher Heraclitus gets one wondering about what exactly was the purpose of the whole work. In some translations we find differences:
according to its constitution
Other people, on the contrary
These differences can have dramatic consequences in the interpretation. When I first read this fragment I was awestruck by its metaphysical import, and its obvious connection to Christianity with its all important Logos. However, when I considered the context of the fragment, and the slant of its rhetoric, it seemed more and more as if Heraclitus was quoting someone else. These aphorisms, like Aesop's Fables, have an older original or source. The fragments are analogous to the analects of Confucius:
These guys were teachers. Teachers find their sources from earlier materials. The riddling and oppositions in Heraclitus also seem to have an Oriental equivalent in the koans:
From my perspective, the fragments of Heraclitus entertain one with a curiosity akin to looking at a shard of a ancient pot, or a bone of a dinosaur. There is this element of wow. These are the thoughts of someone who lived over two thousand years ago. Wow. They are a magnet for philosophers who like Martin Heidigger who excavated/exhumed the presocratic philosophies. One can build a city of ideas on these fragments. But are they really more than Ionian Greek "soundbites"? We have little to go on. A pity that the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. Perhaps we would have been able to read the whole work, and our impression would be different. Indeed, often like "baggy novels", philosophy that is interminably long presents us with formidable hurdle - few of us have the patience to wade through long philosophical texts. We like ideas to be presented in texts of ideally one hundred pages or so. Same with politics.
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