The Simply Comparison Between the Logos of Heraclitus and Jesus Essay Example

Heraclitus of Ephesus.

The Philosophy Teaching of Heraclitus According to Heraclitus, all things come into being according to logos and are flux or changes; contrary to what sense data might indicate at times, nothing is permanent. But every thing is becoming constantly something else or going out of existence . Heraclitus is supposed to say that all things are in motion and nothing rest. He compares them to the flowing if a river, and say that we cannot step into the same river twice because waters are flowing on.

Heaclitus uses the river as a metaphor to describe the nature of things: superficially a river may appear to be a permanent and stable entity, but closer inspection reveals that it continually changes, not being the same river from one moment to the next. Some people may think that they see thin g that do not change, but for Heraclitus, they are fooled. If they could see really what is happening, if they had eyes powerful enough to see exactly what is happening, they would realize that even the most stable thing in the universe is actually changing all the time.

The universe, then, is ruled by the strife. All tings are changing all the time, and there is nothing permanent. Logos is the principle according to which al ting change, that which determines the nature of the flux the resides in all human beings. Logos is common to al human beings, because al posses reason or logos , although they may not make much use of it. The statement that ‘All things happen according to this logos’ should probably be interpreted to mean that I n flux. The

same logos common to all human beings gives order to the cosmos.

This, no doubt, accounts to the fact that the flux is not random, but exhibits eternal regularity and predictability. The logos posed by a human beings is actually universal logos or mind. In that there is an intelligence at work amidst all the flux, which is identical to human intelligence is a manifestation of this. Heraclitus identifies the logos with fire. Logos is not the immaterial principle, sprit permeating matter. Moreover, fire is not only the intelligence present in the flux, but actually is that of which all things consists.

Heraclitus believes that fire was the original stuff of which all else in the universe was made. He believes, fire is forever changing, never still, never the same. Since everything is constantly changing, since change is the fundamental characteristic of the universe. He regarded fire as the fundamental substance; everything, like flame in the fire, is born by the death of something else. The metaphysic of Heraclitus are that this world ,which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made; but it was ever, is now, and ever shall be an ever-living fire, with measures kindling and measures going out.

The transformation of fire are, first of all, sea; and half of the sea is earth, half whirlwind. In such a world, perpetual change was what he believed in. The metaphysic of Heraclitus is dominated by a conception cosmic justice, which prevents the strife of opposites from ever issuing in the complete victory of either. Al things are changed for fire and fire for all things, even as wares for gold

and gold for wares. Fire lines the death of fire; water lived the death of earth that of water.

Since the logos is fire and human beings have logos , it follows that the reasonable element in human being is hot and dry, since there are quality of fire. For Heraclitus , a dry soul is wisest and best. A man when he is drunk is lead by an unfledged boy , stumbling and not knowing where he is going, having his soul moist. The best soul is a dry one because the best soul is filled with fire or logos. Drinking too much causes the soul to become wet, so that the logos as the dry element no longer predominates.

The result is the irrational state of drunkenness. Fire creates and is flux, the coming and perishing of all things. However, according to Heraclitus the cosmos flux consists of balance of opposites. The inevitable conflict between opposites id actually the constitution of the cosmos; without this ‘give and take’ between polarities there would be nothing. A things are regulated by fire or logos and since all things are logos or fire, there is no ultimate opposition in the cosmos. Heraclitus identifies logos or fire as God .

This follows from the facts that fire is eternal , being the source of al things: whatever which is eternal is by definition a deity. He says as God is day night, winter summer, war peace, satisfy hunger (the meaning is all the opposites) ;he undergoes alteration in the way their fire when it is mixed with pieces, is named according to the scent of them. God as fire becomes

all things in the same way that fire takes the scent of the pieces thrown into it. Everything is a modification (through condensation or rarefaction) of this divine, intelligence fire.

Heraclitus believed that cyclically, the cosmos is consumed by fire, all at once reverting back to its original state. Fire as God is logos; in a state of craving , fire bring forth all things , but when a state of satiety is reached, all things are destroyed. The destruction of all things by fire is destined to occur cyclically. Heraclitus believes that good and evil were two notes in a harmony. He found many things changing into their opposites. Ice, which is hard, changes into water, which is soft. This led him to believe that the combination of opposites resulted in a whole in which there is harmony.

Just as in music, harmony result from the combination of low and high notes, in the universe harmony results from the combination of the opposites, the good and evil. He taught as many people see only the opposites, good and evil. But God sees the harmony, so that all things are fair and just in that they are parts of a great universal harmony. Thus the good life for man is that life lived in harmony with the universal reason, the law which pervades all things Man should seek to understand this harmony in the universe and to fit into it so that his actions are in accord with the principle governing the whole universe.