Nothing endures but change; Change is the only constant. ―HeraclitusHeraclitus of Ephesus (535–475 BCE), more commonly known as the obscure, the riddler, or the weeping philosopher, has been one of the earliest line of Naturalist greek philosophers. It may very well be that Nietzsche took direct inspiration from Heraclitus' nature-dwelling wanderer's lifestyle in developing the character of Zarathustra for Thus spake Zarathustra. In a pre-Socratic greek thinker's world, philosophers such as Anaximander posited that "the origin or the ultimate reality was an 'indefinite' and eternal divinity called Apeiron –a formless, boundless, ageless, infinite with abundant supply of matter which gives rise to all natural phenomena". The material world was composed by this boundless apeiron from which arose the elements (earth, water, fire, air), and pairs of opposites (hot and cold, wet and dry), which, as it were, akin to properties of these elements. Anaximander further believed, through his teacher Thales of Miletus and the prevailing belief system of the time, that these elements –according to their pairs of opposites– continue to be in a constant state of war with each other.
Anaximenes of Miletus, a student and successor of Anaximander, and a proper, though senior, contemporary of Heraclitus, removed the concept of apeiron, proposing in stead that there was not so much a war of opposites that Anaximander posited, as a continuum of change. His new proposition now rested on his concept of Material monism –a one, single, "root" element as an originator for all the rest. Anaximenes chose Air as his fundamental or "root" element.
Heraclitus improvised the theory by further removing dependance on material monism, and proposed that everything in the universe rests on an abstract, subtle, principal rather than gross, tangible, matter. He called this Logos, and along ith Anaximander's precepts, the theory came to be known as The Unity of Opposites. Heraclitus coined the word Logos from the root legō, suggesting through his rather obscure style of narration that it is the fundamental principle, where "all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos". Plato, Aristotle and others, under influence of Heraclitus' work, subsequently developed Logos to mean Logical Discourse. (Aristotle's initiative of establishing Logic as a proper independent branch of philosophy –what we now call Aristotelian Logic– traces its origins to Pythagoras, which seems a separate, parallel, descending line from Anaximander.)
The following are two surviving fragments from Heraclitus's writings on his concept of Logos around 500 BCE:
Among the more recent studies, Carl Jung in his analytical psychology contrasted a rational, critical, decisive logos with an emotional, non-reason oriented and mythical elements of mythos. In Jung's approach logos vs mythos can be represented as "science vs mysticism", or "reason vs imagination" or "conscious activity vs the unconscious".1) "This Logos holds always, but humans always prove unable to understand it, both before hearing it and when they have first heard it. For though all things come to be in accordance with this Logos, humans are like the inexperienced when they experience such words and deeds as I set out, distinguishing each in accordance with its nature and saying how it is. But other people fail to notice what they do when awake, just as they forget what they do while asleep."
2) "For this reason it is necessary to follow what is common. But although the Logos is common, most people live as if they had their own private understanding."
Notice the inescapable resemblance of i) Anaximander's line of thought with that of Vedic cosmological world-view of Hirnyagarbha (void) as the origin; ii) his position that the divinity of Apeiron informs each and every thing and bing in the universe, comparable with the Indian tradition of seeing God everywhere; iii) and Heraclitus' proposition of "continuum of change" with Samkya philosophy, and later, Buddha's idea of impermanence. The ideas are contemporary of the era 550–500 BCE. At the same time, iv) also notice the similarities between the idea of Logos and the Chinese concept of Tao; as well as v) the pairs of opposites with the unity of Chinese ying–yang. The point shines even brighter when we look into some of the surviving writings of Heraclitus.
Πάντα ῥεῖ (panta rhei) – Impermanence –"Everything Flows"–"Everything is in a state of flux"
ἐδιζησάμην ἐμεωυτόν...
Self-examination is the hardest thing to do
Seyn und Nichts sey dasselbe
Being and non-being are the same
τὰ ὄντα ἰέναι τε πάντα καὶ μένειν οὐδέν
All beings going and remaining not at all
Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν.
We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not
ἐκ τῶν διαφερόντων καλλίστην ἁρμονίαν
Out of discord comes the fairest harmony