Parmemides and Heraclitus on change E-mail: chevyman78@hotmail.com Parmemides and Heraclitus On Change Heraclitus argued there was a single divine law of the universe, which rules and guides the cosmos. This is the Logos. He said that the logos both underlies and governs change. Heraclitus compares the logos to fire an element that is always changing yet always the same. For example he said, "The sun is new each day."(Curd Pg. 38 88) His view was that "all things are derived from a single arche or starting point and that as now constituted all things are organized within a single world structure or Kosmos". (5.17 Robinson) In other words all things are one. In Heraclitean cosmology the components turn into one another according to certain rules. The struggle between the opposites will always be evenly balanced, gains in one region by one force being always simultaneously offset by equal gains elsewhere by the opposed force. Some examples would be "Fire lives the death of earth and air lives the death of fire, water lives the death of air, earth that of water." (Maximus of Tyre 41.4) Another example would be "the changes of fire: first sea, and of sea half is earth, half fiery thunderbolt . . . . earth is dispersed as sea, and is measured out in the same proportion as before it became earth."(5.16 Robinson) Heraclitus also has the idea of alternates, the thought that if there is a road going down there must be one going up. With this the idea of opposing forces comes into play. When one force gains the other has to loose the same amount because the change has to be equal. In the case of fire it is kindled in measures as it is being extinguished in measures. Water is another element that is always changing. His reasoning for this is that you can not step into the same river twice. The water is always moving, swirling and flowing. The area of the river may be the same but it is always changing. If it did not flow it would cease to be ...
