Contents
Heraclitus
Arguing that change and opposing forces belong to an ordered whole.
The logos · Unity of opposites
- Born
- Unknown
- Birthplace
- Ephesus, present-day Türkiye
- Died
- Unknown
More people
Heraclitus
Early Greek thinker known through fragments rather than a complete surviving book. His compressed sayings explore change, conflict and the logos, or underlying account of things.
Early life
Ionian origins
Associated with Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor.
Limited biography
Reliable information about his upbringing is scarce; many later stories are anecdotal.
Career
- Around 500 BCE
Philosophical writing
Formulated the teachings preserved in quotations by later authors.
Ideas & fragments
The logos
A common order that people often fail to understand.
Unity of opposites
Apparent opposites can belong to the same underlying process.
River imagery
Rivers illustrate continuity alongside the constant movement of their waters.
Beyond philosophy
A difficult style
His dense expressions earned a reputation for obscurity among later readers.
How the text survives
Later writers preserved selected quotations, so interpretation depends on fragmentary evidence.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and references ↗Biography and contributions ↗Photo: RoyFokker — later sculptural depiction, not a contemporary likeness. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
