Heraclitus biography summary page by date

Heraclitus contribution to psychology

He exerts a wide influence on ancient and modern Western philosophy , through the works of such authors as Plato , Aristotle , Hegel , Marx and Heidegger. Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote a single work, only fragments of which have survived. Even in ancient times, his paradoxical philosophy, appreciation for wordplay , and cryptic, oracular epigrams earned him the epithets "the dark" and "the obscure".

He was considered arrogant and depressed, a misanthrope who was subject to melancholia. Consequently, he became known as "the weeping philosopher" in contrast to the ancient atomist philosopher Democritus , who was known as "the laughing philosopher". The central ideas of Heraclitus's philosophy are the unity of opposites and the concept of change.

Heraclitus saw harmony and justice in strife. He viewed the world as constantly in flux, always "becoming" but never "being". This insistence upon change contrasts with that of the ancient philosopher Parmenides , who believed in a reality of static " being ". Heraclitus believed fire was the arche , the fundamental stuff of the world. In choosing an arche Heraclitus followed the Milesians before him — Thales with water , Anaximander with apeiron lit.

Heraclitus also thought the logos lit. Heraclitus, the son of Blyson, was from the Ionian city of Ephesus, a port on the Cayster River , on the western coast of Asia Minor modern-day Turkey. In the 6th century BC, Ephesus, like other cities in Ionia , lived under the effects of both the rise of Lydia under Croesus and his overthrow by Cyrus the Great c.

Since antiquity, Heraclitus has been labeled a solitary figure and an arrogant misanthrope.