Cain
May 1st, 2006, 05:55 PM
http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/Philosophy/Heraclitus.html
Heraclitus was born at Ephesus of aristocratic parentage around 540 B.C. and lived until 475 B.C. We know almost nothing finite about his life, except that he was early known as difficult of comprehension, hence the nickname "The Dark One" or in Greek skoteinos. There is no absolute evidence for a Book of his philosophical ideas, and the hundred or so "Fragments", which are quoted from later sources, seem to derive from his personal Sayings or Counsels, much in the manner of Pythagoras' Symbola. Strangely many of the cited fragments come from Christian sources, bent on disproving or ridiculing Heraclitus' words, a bad effort which has the good effect of giving us a few more of Heraclitus' precious insights.
Heraclitus was born at Ephesus of aristocratic parentage around 540 B.C. and lived until 475 B.C. We know almost nothing finite about his life, except that he was early known as difficult of comprehension, hence the nickname "The Dark One" or in Greek skoteinos. There is no absolute evidence for a Book of his philosophical ideas, and the hundred or so "Fragments", which are quoted from later sources, seem to derive from his personal Sayings or Counsels, much in the manner of Pythagoras' Symbola. Strangely many of the cited fragments come from Christian sources, bent on disproving or ridiculing Heraclitus' words, a bad effort which has the good effect of giving us a few more of Heraclitus' precious insights.