12. Heraclitus, Change, and the Problem of Contradiction

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Central Dichotomy: Heraclitus vs. Parmenides #

• Heraclitus’s Position: All things change; “day and night are the same”; sleeping and waking are the same; therefore something can both be and not be
• Parmenides’s Response: Something cannot both be and not be at the same time; therefore change and becoming must be illusion
• The Dilemma: Following reason (Parmenides) forbids change; following the senses (Heraclitus) requires admitting real contradiction
• Key Insight: Both thinkers agree that you must choose between change and the impossibility of contradiction; they disagree only on which to accept

Heraclitus’s Use of Apparent Contradiction #

• Heraclitus states apparent contradictions (“day becomes night,” “the sleeping and the awake are the same”) not necessarily to assert real contradiction, but to stimulate thinking
• Similar to how Thomas Aquinas structures the Summa: presenting objections that seem to contradict his position, then “untying” (solutio) the apparent contradiction in the body of the article
• Examples of paradoxical language: “The best things in life aren’t things” uses equivocal language to make readers pause and think

The Hidden Harmony of Opposites #

• Hidden vs. Apparent Harmony: The hidden harmony is better than the apparent (DK 54)
• The Bow and Lyre Example: Opposing forces (pulling and pushing) work together; the more one hand pulls, the greater the force, not opposition
• The Opposite is Useful: Competition keeps prices down; opposing political parties prevent tyranny; courtroom opposition seeks truth; opposition to one’s thinking forces deeper understanding
• Beauty from Opposition: Light and shadow in painting (Rembrandt), stars against dark sky, sunrise/sunset with shadows create beauty precisely through contrast
• Friendship: Hidden harmony (working through conflict) is deeper than apparent harmony (entertainment, superficial agreement)

Heraclitus on Change and the Elements #

• The Way Up and Down: Earth becomes water, water becomes air, air becomes fire, and vice versa in reverse (DK 31)
• Death as Transformation: “Death of earth is water coming to be” (paralleling how ice/snow becomes water when heated)
• Soul as Air: Following Anaximenes, Heraclitus describes the soul as air and notes it is “death to souls to become water”
• Underlying Constancy: The cyclical transformation of elements suggests something eternal and unchanging underlies all change

Fire as First Matter and Mover #

• Fire’s Dual Role: Fire is Heraclitus’s choice for first matter (“all things are exchanged for fire and fire for all things”), but also the active principle of motion
• The Problem: What makes fire a good mover (its volatility and transformative heat) makes it a poor candidate for first matter (it has too many definite qualities: hot and dry)
• Significance for Future Philosophy: This confusion of matter and mover in Heraclitus represents an advance because he recognizes the need for a mover, but the conflation itself is confused and will be separated more clearly in Empedocles and especially Anaxagoras
• Marxist Interpretation: Modern materialists conflate matter and mover (following Heraclitus), which serves their purpose of avoiding the conclusion that an immaterial, unmoved mover (God) exists

War/Strife as the Source of Motion #

• War as Father (not Mother) of All Things: The use of “father” is significant—it suggests the mover or maker, not material cause (which is associated with mother/matter)
• Strife and Justice: “War is common and strife is justice” (DK 80); all things come into being by strife and fate
• Distinction from Matter: Unlike earlier thinkers who only discussed material cause, Heraclitus begins to think explicitly of the mover or source of becoming

The Nature of Reason and Unity #

• The Natural Inclination of Reason: It is wise to listen to logos (reason) and agree that all things are one (DK 50)
• Reason Seeks Unity and Order: The very nature of reason inclines us to seek one principle; order itself is based on something one (e.g., all events ordered chronologically by one event like the birth of Christ)
• The Paradox of the Cosmos: The most beautiful ordered whole (cosmos) appears, in one sense, to be a heap piled up at random—what you would expect if it resulted from a mindless mover
• Anticipation of Divine Mind: This paradox anticipates the need for a cosmic Mind (Nous) ordering all things, which Anaxagoras will develop explicitly

The Infinite Depth of the Soul/Reason #

• DK 45: “One could not find in going the ends of the soul, having traveled every road. So deep is the reason it has”
• Significance: There is something infinite, something endless, about reason itself
• Connection to Anaxagoras: When Anaxagoras develops the idea of cosmic Mind, he will also emphasize its infinite character

Key Arguments #

The Dichotomy as a Dilemma #

• Both Heraclitus and Parmenides accept the same fundamental principle: something cannot both be and not be
• But they apply it differently: Heraclitus accepts change and (apparently) accepts that contradiction is real; Parmenides accepts that contradiction is impossible and rejects change
• Resolution: Recognizing that Parmenides is correct about the impossibility of real contradiction AND that change is obviously real, we must find a way to understand change that does not involve real contradiction (Aristotle’s solution through potency)

Contrary Effects Require Contrary Causes #

• Things mix together (under Love) and separate (under Hate/Strife)
• Mixing and separating are contrary effects
• Contrary effects require contrary causes
• Therefore, there must be contrary cosmic forces (anticipating Empedocles’s Love and Hate)

The Problem of First Matter and Definite Qualities #

• If first matter has definite qualities, then opposites are excluded from it (a truly hot matter cannot become cold without ceasing to be that matter)
• If first matter has no qualities, how can definite things arise from it?
• Heraclitus’s choice of fire as both matter and mover blurs the distinction and doesn’t fully resolve the problem

Important Definitions #

Nature (φύσις / physis) #

• Derived from the Greek root meaning “birth” or “to grow”
• Originally refers to something within, hidden from external view
• Extended to mean the source of motion and rest in a thing
• Eventually comes to mean the essence or what a thing fundamentally is

Logos (λόγος) #

• Reason or rational principle
• The common element that all things share
• The principle that orders and unifies reality
• What the wise man listens to when seeking understanding

Cosmos (κόσμος) #

• The universe understood as an ordered, beautiful whole
• Contains the idea of arrangement, order, and beauty (kosmetikos, hence “cosmetics”)
• Contrasts with a “heap piled up at random” (soros)

Solutio (Latin) #

• The “untying” or resolution of an apparent contradiction
• Thomas Aquinas’s term for the body of his articles in the Summa, where apparent contradictions from objections are resolved

Equivocal Words (λόγος ἐπ’ ἴσης) #

• Words that are said of different things in different senses
• Example: “thing” is said of both physical objects and persons, but persons are distinguished as a separate category because they add something noteworthy (rational nature)
• Heraclitus may use such equivocal language (e.g., “day” in different senses) to create apparent contradictions that prompt thinking

Examples & Illustrations #

Travel and Restfulness #

• People say “I find travel very restful” but also “sitting still makes me restless”
• The apparent contradiction dissolves when recognized: the motion of the body calms the emotions in one person, while stillness of body agitates the emotions in another
• Different things are at rest and in motion; therefore no real contradiction

The Bow and the Lyre #

• In archery: pulling one way with one hand and pushing the other way with the other hand seem contrary, but they work together to produce force
• The greater the pull, the greater the force of the arrow
• Apparent opposition actually constitutes a hidden harmony

The Sticker: “The Best Things in Life Aren’t Things” #

• On the surface: a contradiction (if things are best, how can they not be things?)
• Resolution through equivocal language: “things” in the first clause means objects broadly; “things” in the second clause means non-personal physical objects
• Persons are things (not nothing) but are distinguished from things (objects) because they add rational nature

Day Becoming Night #

• When we say “day becomes night,” we seem to say day is night, which appears contradictory
• But if day doesn’t become night, then day remains forever and there is no night
• The language of “becoming” is necessary to explain change, even if it creates apparent contradiction at first

The Progression of States of Matter #

• Snow/ice (earthy) → water (liquid) → steam/air (gaseous) → fire (plasma/heat)
• Each transformation is the “death” of the previous state and the coming-to-be of the next
• Illustrates how the four elements (earth, water, air, fire) are interconnected through transformation

Fire in Nature vs. Fire as Principle #

• A physical fire destroying a building produces a random heap of destruction
• Yet the universe exhibits beautiful order and structure
• This contrast illustrates how a mindless mover would produce randomness, suggesting an ordered mind is necessary

Democratic Systems and Opposition #

• Political systems based on opposing parties (checks and balances)
• Economic systems based on competition between producers
• Legal systems based on prosecution and defense presenting opposing cases
• All rely on the principle that opposition is useful for discovering truth and maintaining justice

Light and Shadow in Painting (Rembrandt) #

• A painting wholly filled with light or wholly dark would not be beautiful
• Rembrandt’s use of a shaft of light against shadow creates beauty through contrast
• The diamond is most beautiful under candlelight (which creates shadows) rather than under uniform artificial light

Notable Quotes #

“Nature loves to hide” - Heraclitus (DK 123)

“It is wise, listening not to me, but to reason, to agree that all things are one” - Heraclitus (DK 50)

“The hidden harmony is better than the apparent” - Heraclitus (DK 54)

“The opposite is useful” - Heraclitus (referenced in DK 53)

“War is the father of all things, the king of all things” - Heraclitus (DK 53)

“They do not understand how that which is opposed agrees with itself. There is a harmony of opposites, as in the case of the bow and the lyre” - Heraclitus (paraphrased)

“From differing comes the most beautiful harmony” - Heraclitus (DK 8, discussed by Berquist)

“The death of earth is water coming to be” - Heraclitus (DK 31)

“One could not find in going the ends of the soul, having traveled every road. So deep is the reason it has” - Heraclitus (DK 45)

“The universe, which is the same for all, no god or man has made, but it always was, is, and will be an everlasting fire, kindled in measures, and extinguished in measures” - Heraclitus (DK 30)

Questions Addressed #

Is Change Real or Illusory? #

• Heraclitus: Change is absolutely real; all things flow; day becomes night
• Parmenides: Change is impossible; contradiction cannot exist; therefore change is illusory
• The Problem: Both seem reasonable but contradict each other
• Berquist’s Point: We cannot deny change based on what we observe, so we must find a way to understand change that respects Parmenides’s principle (non-contradiction)

Why Does Heraclitus State Apparent Contradictions? #

• Not Literal Truth: Heraclitus may not believe day and night are really the same
• Purpose: To stimulate thinking and provoke the mind to seek deeper understanding
• Method: Similar to Socratic method and to Thomas Aquinas’s presentation of objections in the Summa
• Effect: Creates apparent contradiction that must be “untied” to find the real harmony beneath

How Can Opposites Work Together? #

• The bow and lyre show that opposing forces can create a unified effect
• Competition (economic opposition) benefits consumers through lower prices
• Legal opposition (prosecution vs. defense) seeks truth
• Character develops through opposition to one’s thinking
• Principle: The opposite is useful because it forces development, improvement, and deeper understanding

What Is the Relationship Between Matter and Mover? #

• Heraclitus: Conflates fire as both first matter and active mover
• Problem: What makes fire good as a mover (volatility, heat) makes it poor as matter (too many definite qualities)
• Significance: Heraclitus recognizes the need for a mover beyond previous thinkers, but the confusion will be untangled in Empedocles and Anaxagoras
• Theological Implication: If matter and mover are separated, one arrives at the need for an immaterial, unmoved mover (God)

Why Is Order in the Universe Paradoxical? #

• The cosmos is beautiful and ordered
• Yet if it arose from a mindless mover (fire), it should be a random heap
• Resolution: There must be a Mind (Nous) ordering all things
• Anticipation: Anaxagoras will make this explicit with his cosmic Mind

What Is the Nature of Reason and Its Inclinations? #

• Reason naturally seeks unity (one principle underlying all things)
• Reason also naturally seeks order
• These inclinations reflect something real about reality itself
• Even non-religious thinkers (Einstein) recognize that finding order in the universe is a fundamental assumption of science