Heraclitus
Also known as Heraclitus of Ephesus, Weeping Philosopher
Heraclitus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, both ancient and modern, through the works of such authors as Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger.
AI overview
Heraclitus was an ancient Greek philosopher from Ephesus who lived before Socrates and made significant contributions to Western thought. His ideas proved so influential that major philosophers throughout history—from Plato and Aristotle to modern thinkers like Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger—drew upon and developed his work.
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Person · Open Library
- Works
- 98
Top works
- Prentice Hall Literature -- Platinum
- Heraklit fragmente
- Hērakleitos
- Héraclite d'Ephèse Doctrines philosophiques
- Allegoriae homericae qvae svb Heraclidis nomine fervntvr
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 16
- Total plays
- 26
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latinized name
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Works in European collections
4 objects attributed to Heraclitus, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
Article
48 sectionsContents
- Life
- ''On Nature''
- Structure
- Style
- The Obscure
- Philosophy
- Unity of opposites and flux
- ''Panta rhei''<!--'Panta rhei (Heraclitus)' redirects here-->
- You cannot step into the same river twice
- Strife is justice
- ''Logos''
- Fire as the ''arche''
- Cosmology
- God
- The Soul
- Foreign influence
- Persia
- India
- Egypt
- Legacy
- Ancient
- Eleatics
- Pluralists and atomists
- Sophists
- Plato and Aristotle
- Stoics
- Cynics
- Pyrrhonists
- Early Christianity
- Weeping philosopher
- Modern
- Rationalism
- British empiricism
- Post-Kantianism
- Heraclitean studies
- Continental
- Analytic
- Notes
- Explanatory notes
- Fragment numbers
- Citations
- References
- Ancient sources
- Testimony
- Fragments
- Imitation
- Modern scholarship
- External links
Heraclitus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, both ancient and modern, through the works of such authors as Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger.
Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote a single work, of which only fragments survive. 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".
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470s BC deaths530s BC births5th-century BC Greek philosophers6th-century BC Greek philosophersAncient EphesiansAncient Greek cosmologistsAncient Greek epistemologistsAncient Greek ethicistsAncient Greek metaphysiciansAncient Greek philosophers of mindAncient Greek physicistsAncient Greek political philosophers