The Greek philosopher Heraclitus (ca. 540-ca. 480 BC) attempted to explain the nature of the universe by assuming the existence of the logos, that is, order or reason, as the unifying principle which guides all things and by specifying fire as the...

The thought of Heraclitus--a Greek philosopher who lived probably within the span of approximately 525-475 B.C. (actual dates unknown)--can be accessed only through a few fragments of text preserved in a second-hand way from quotes and citations by...

Heraclitus was a pre-Socratic philosopher who, along with his polar opposite, Parmenides, set out the basic premises of Western thought. While Parmenides emphasized the strict immutability of existence, Heraclitus argued for the continuous alteration...

fl. c. 500 B.C. Greek philosopher to whom is attributed the doctrine that "all things are in flux and nothing is stable"—meaning the world is composed of opposites whose dynamic and constant tension gives rise to the apparent...

Heraclitus of Ephesus Heraclitus of Ephesus is an early Greek philosopher who lived around the end of the sixth century BCE. He was a native of Ephesus, an important Ionian city just north of Miletus on the western coast of Asia Minor, and his father In...

Heraclitus of Ephesus (Ancient Greek: Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος — Hērákleitos ho Ephésios, English Heraclitus the Ephesian) (ca. 535–475 BC) was a pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher, a native of Ephesus on the coast of Asia...

Reader, he married her. A quiet wedding they had: Ted and— Actually, about the only thing viewers of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother know for sure is that Ted’s happily ever after is already well under way by 2030. That’s the year...

In the following essay, Wiggins explores the context and meaning of Heraclitean theories of flux, fire, and material persistence, arguing that Heraclitus developed these concepts as a response to the natural philosophy of the Milesian thinkers Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Thales.

In the following excerpt, Kahn offers a survey of Heraclitus 's historical and intellectual context, paying particular attention to the philosopher's links with Ionian natural philosophy. Kahn maintains that Heraclitus 's "real subject is not the physical world but the human condition, the condition of mortality."

In the following excerpt, Hussey examines several rules for the interpretation of sense-experience which he contends Heraclitus followed. The editors have included only those footnotes which pertain to the excerpt.