Heraclitus

Summary

Heraclitus of Ephesus lived during the reign of Darius (521–487) and wrote around the beginning of the fifth century. Ephesus was at that time under Persian control. Its rich neighbor, Miletus, was destroyed in 494 after the failure of the Ionian revolt, and Ephesus thereafter was unrivaled among Greek cities in Asia Minor. The fragmentary quotations of Heraclitus that have come down to us are rife with puzzles and ambiguities. We have included the fragments that can be read as carrying a political meaning.

(DK 1)

Although this is the true logos, people are always stupid about it, before they have heard it and after they have heard it for the first time. For although everything happens in accordance with this logos, people seem like those of no experience when they experience words and deeds such as the ones I am expounding when I mark off each thing by its nature and say how it is. And other people are not aware of what they do while awake, just as they forget what they did while asleep.

(DK 113)

Understanding is shared by all.

(DK 2)

Although the logos is shared, most people live as if they had a private understanding.

(DK 116)

All human beings share in knowing themselves and thinking soundly.