Heraclitus
535 BCE – 475 BCE Greek philosopher
The philosopher of flux who held that everything is in constant change.
- Religion
- Greek polytheism, reinterpreted through his idea of a divine logos ordering the cosmos.
- Affiliations
- None. He worked alone and was known for his solitary, obscure manner.
Heraclitus argued that reality is a process of ceaseless change, captured in the idea that you cannot step into the same river twice. He placed a rational principle, the logos, at the heart of a world of opposites in tension. His thought fed Stoicism, Hegel, and much of modern process philosophy.
In the timeline
- 501 BCE Heraclitus and the Logos of the cosmos central figure