SOURCE: David Wiggins, "Heraclitus' Conceptions of Flux, Fire and Material Persistence," in Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy Presented to G. E. L. Owen, edited by Malcolm Schofield and Martha Craven Nussbaum, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 1-32.

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.

Even when they are most worthy of amazement, things of daily occurrence pass us by unnoticed.

Seneca, Quaestiones Naturelles 7.1.1

It can hardly be supposed that a false theory would explain, in so satisfactory a manner as does the theory of natural selection, the several large classes of fact above specified. It has recently been argued that this is an unsafe method of arguing; but it is a method used...