Heraclitus: Pre Socratic Philosopher- Upwards-downwards Theory

Heraclitus of Phesis was a pre-Socratic philosopher. He's most famous for embedding his philosophical thinking into a prose treatise fashion. He was also a religious thinker and believed in the existence of God. He's most famous for his aphorisms. He indulged himself in aphorisms such as, The road up and the road down are the same thing and one cannot step into the same river twice which is very famous. Aphorism basically means a pithy observation which basically contains the general truth. Fragments of his philosophy have been largely represented by Bertrand Russell in his work the history of Western philosophy. Some of his areas of interest are cosmology, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics etc. He was highly influenced by the philosophy of Milesians i.e. Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Homer etc. He influenced a number of philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Hegel etc. According to one of Plato's dialogues, Socrates admired Heraclitus' aphorisms as much as he could understand and whatever bit he could not understand was equally admired by him. Now Heraclitus was a contemporary of Parmenides but both the philosophers held opposite views. Parmenides to give you a brief explanation of his philosophy was the founder of the Iliatic school which believed that reality is one, it is being, it is eternal and unchangeable in nature. The Iliatic school was a pre-Socratic school which was founded in the 5th century BC in Italy. They described everything under the two concepts of being and non-being. Being for them was the only truth, the only reality. On the other hand non-being was an illusionary concept. Now the reason both Heraclitus and Parmenides being contemporaries held opposite views is because Heraclitus believed in just the opposite of it. In other words he represented the antithesis of Iliaticism. For him reality is change, reality is flux and it is always becoming. According to him becoming is the only reality and permanence that is being is nothing but an illusion. So you can see the stark opposite views expressed by the two philosophers. Heraclitus believed that everything is in a state of flux and all seemingly permanent things are in a state of change. On similar lines he says one can step into the same river only once or no one can step into the same river twice for when a man enters into a river he meets one stream of water and the next moment he enters again he meets a newer stream of water. So all rivers mountains, blood streams, mental streams, man etc basically everything that we see around us is seemingly permanent but it is in a constant state of flux. It is in a constant state of change. Simply put Heraclitus's famous aphorism sums up his main philosophical teaching that is everything flows and nothing is permanent in nature. Therefore becoming or impermanence or change is the only reality. Now here a comparison can be drawn between Heraclitus's doctrine of flux or impermanence of things and Buddha's theory of momentariness. Buddha's theory of momentariness is also called as Shana Bhangavad. According to the theory of momentariness not only is everything conditional and therefore non-permanent in nature but also that things last not for a period or a short period of time but exist or last for one movement or for one partless movement only. Therefore this is almost similar to what we have just read about no one can step into the same river twice aphorism. For Heraclitus water, air or number are not the primordial stuff or Akhe. According to him the concept of Akhe or logo is best symbolized by fire. He says fire is ever-changing entity which constitutes life or reality. In simpler words he said fire is what keeps on changing every movement for instance fire burns fuel into ash and then ash changes and gets mixed with soil. So fire has abiding order of change or impermanence in it. He says there is fire in man too. The one with more fire is considered to be more intellectual in nature and the one with less fire is regarded to be sick or ill. So basically fire is what the world moves around. Here a comparison can be drawn between Heraclitus's views on fire in a man which determines his being and the concept of Gunas i.e. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas the elements in a man which also determine a man's being expounded by the Sankhya school of Indian philosophy. In simpler words what is being said is according to Sankhya philosophy a man is composed of three Gunas whichever one dominates in a man that brings a change in his being. Like for example Sattva deals with the light and the color white that dominates goodness and harmony in a man. On the other hand Rajas deals with wild stimulations and deals with the color red and lastly Tamas deals with passivity, lethargy etc and deals with the color black. Now moving on to Heraclitus's famous theory the upward and the downward theory. Here Heraclitus says that all things come from fire and return to fire as fire being his Aage. He explains this with his upward and downward theory in which he says according to the downward way through condensation fire changes into water and stones or earth and according to the upward way through rarefaction water and stones or earth gives way to fire. This order basically produces the illusion of permanence but it is not permanence rather it is the order of constant flux or it is the order of constant change. So coming back to the same aphorism that the road up and the road down are the same thing is another way of his explaining his upward and downward theory of the world always being in constant flux or the world always being in the order of change. Lastly another important theory propounded by him is the harmony in opposites. So basically according to Heraclitus all things are composed of opposites. So every existent thing deals with a harmony of opposites such as wherever there is cold there would be hot, wherever there is day there would be night, wherever there is dry it would be wet. So condensation, rarefaction etc. This means the existence of cold for example depends on the coexistence of hot. So there is a unity or harmony in the opposites. Therefore he says it is important to note that the unity or the harmony of the opposites is the father of all things. As his another famous aphorism goes cold things grow hot, a hot thing cold, a moist thing withers, a parched thing is wetted. This is a classic example of unity or harmony in opposites. Question according to Heraclitus dash is his Arche or logo. The correct answer is according to Heraclitus the fire is the Arche or logo. The theory of opposite is propounded by Pythagoras. Heraclitus on the other hand believed in theory of unity in opposites or the theory of harmony in opposites.