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He expressed this in sayings like "Everything flows" (Greek: πάντα ρει, panta rhei) and "No man ever steps in the same river twice". This insistence upon change contrasts with that of the ancient philosopher Parmenides, who believed in a reality of static "being". Heraclitus believed fire was the arche, the
"Everything flows, nothing stands still." Attributed to Heraclitus — Plato, in his dialogue Cratylus, recounts Heraclitus' saying: Τὰ ὄντα ἰέναι τε πάντα καὶ μένειν οὐδέν. Tà ónta iénai te pánta kaì ménein oudén. "[That] things that exist move and nothing remains still", [31] which he expands:
That is to say, when an object moves from point A to point B, a change is created, while the underlying law remains the same. Thus, a unity of opposites is present in the universe simultaneously containing difference and sameness. An aphorism of Heraclitus illustrates the idea as follows: The road up and the road down are the same thing.
Impermanence first appears in Greek philosophy in the writings of Heraclitus and his doctrine of panta rhei (everything flows). Heraclitus was famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the fundamental essence of the universe, as stated in the famous saying, "No man ever steps in the same river twice". [14]
Heraclitus (Greek: Ἡράκλειτος; fl. 1st century AD) was a grammarian and rhetorician, who wrote a Greek commentary on Homer which is still extant. Little is known about Heraclitus. It is generally accepted that he lived sometime around the 1st century AD. [ 1 ]
In "We step and do not step into the same rivers; we are and we are not", both Heraclitus's and Plato's object simultaneously must, in some sense, be both what it now is and have the potential (dynamic) of what it might become. [5] So little remains of Heraclitus' aphorisms that not much about his philosophy can be said with certainty.
Contrary to the Milesian school, which posits one stable element as the arche, Heraclitus taught that panta rhei ("everything flows"), the closest element to this eternal flux being fire. All things come to pass in accordance with Logos , [ 25 ] which must be considered as "plan" or "formula", [ 26 ] and "the Logos is common". [ 27 ]
Heraclitus (Greek: Ἡράκλειτος, Hērakleitos) of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) disagreed with Thales, Anaximander, and Pythagoras about the nature of the ultimate substance and claimed instead that everything is derived from the Greek classical element fire, rather than from air, water, or earth. This led to the belief that change ...