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JUST/CLAS/RELG 3022 and PHIL 3729: Searching for God: Week 2: Heraclitus of Ephesus

Ancient Greeks, Jews, and Christians

Topic of the week

Topic: Heraclitus of Ephesus

Primary Sources: Heraclitus

Pay special attention to:

Fragments 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 22, 23, 30, 36, 37, 42, 49a, 50, 55, 59-61, 67, 76a/b/c, 88, 91a [91b], 102, 126; Aristotle, Metaphysics 1010a1-14

Secondary Sources: Heraclitus

Optional Readings:

Heraclitus.

CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain

Discussion Questions

  1. How does Heraclitus use the examples of fire (##30, 66, 76a/b/c, 90), the river (##12, 49a, 91), and the sun (#6) to develop his theory of the world?
  2. What do you think Heraclitus is trying to say when he states that (#9) donkeys prefer refuse to gold and (##13, 37) pigs prefer filth to pure water? Cf. #102.
  3. What is the point of the paradoxes in ##8, 10, 59-61 and 67?
  4. What is the message of the cycle described in ## 31, 36, 76a/b/c, 88, 126?
  5. In the above list, what does Heraclitus see as the relationship between the elements?
  6. In #55, what is Heraclitus’s method of research? Keep this in mind for when we discuss Parmenides, Plato, and Aristotle.

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