Heraclitus

Heraclitus of Ephesus (/ˌhɛrəˈklaɪtəs/;Greek: Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος, Hērákleitos ho Ephésios; c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the apparently riddled and allegedly paradoxical nature of his philosophy and his stress upon the needless unconsciousness of humankind, he was called "The Obscure" and the "Weeping Philosopher".

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" (see panta rhei, below). This position was complemented by his stark commitment to a unity of opposites in the world, stating that "the path up and down are one and the same". Through these doctrines Heraclitus characterized all existing entities by pairs of contrary properties, whereby no entity may ever occupy a single state at a single time. This, along with his cryptic utterance that "all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos" (literally, "word", "reason", or "account") has been the subject of numerous interpretations.

Heraclitus (disambiguation)

Heracleitus or Heraclitus may refer to:

Philosophers

Poets

Historians

Musicians

Generals

Athletes

Notes

References

Heraclitus (crater)

Heraclitus is a complex lunar crater that lies in the rugged southern highlands of the Moon. The crater Licetus forms the northern end of the formation. Just to the east is Cuvier, and due south is Lilius. Just to the west of Heraclitus is the small satellite crater Heraclitus K, to the south of which is a pair of larger overlapping craters, Lilius E and Lilius D.

The entire formation is heavily worn, with features smoothed down by a long history of impacts. Heraclitus is a complex formation composed of three sections divided by a triple-armed interior ridge. Of the three sections, the most eroded and irregular is at the eastern end where the outer rim forms a low ridge that joins to Cuvier.

The circular southwest end is the most intact section, forming the circular satellite crater Heraclitus D, which is attached to the other two sections along the northeast rim. There are a pair of ghost-crater rims on the floor, and a low ridge in the southwest. The crater is 90 kilometers in diameter and 3.8 kilometers deep. It may be from the Pre-Imbrian period, which lasted from 4.55 to 3.85 billion years ago.