Heraclitus - Permanent Flux :: essays research papers

Permanent Flux It is said that every great journey begins with one step. This is not true. A more accurate saying would be, every great journey begins with the idea of the journey, thus leading to the idea of the step, and so on. The steps will ill-humored follow an idea, but nevertheless the ideas will always precede any action. Once one gets an idea in ones head, one mustiness either forget it, or act on it. Such as the case with the first Philosophers, known now as the Pre-Socratics. The Pre-Socratics, which started around 600 B.C.E., formed ideas of a journey to enlightenment of their society. Instead of dismissing this idea, they thrived off it and took the first steps toward teaching an entirely new way of thinking. These first thinkers of philosophy, which has an appropriate meaning of the love of wisdom, cherished to know more about life, earth, the stars and most importantly, the being of it all. Though not the first of the original thinkers, Heraclitus of Ephesus, was a mong this group of lovers of wisdom and revolutionized the world with his idea of being and allowed globe to follow in his steps.The Pre-Socratics are known for creating philosophy by searching for a rational order to their world and their being. Prior to the philosophers, man simply original the mythological stories and supernatural concepts. The philosophers, however, approached questions to by observing their surroundings. This was the world they could touch and feel, therefore making it an ideal foundation to their quires. The first of the Pre-Socratics examined the natural world and assumed the lunge that made all things be came from the natural surroundings around them. For example, by an early scientific and rational approach, the Pre-Socratics took the four elements of the world, as they knew them to be (water, air, earth, and fire), and studied them. several(prenominal) deduced water to be the stuff, while others looked to air, or the earth to answers their zealous ques tions of being. Heraclitus, on the other hand, found a unity in all the elements, and think being to fire. His reference to fire, however, is purely metaphorical. While his predecessors focused on the actual elements they felt were the stuff that made the existence of being, Heraclitus only focused on fire to demonstrate his metaphysical concept of constant flux.Heraclitus is noted for saying, there is nothing permanent except change.