Heraclitus - Permanent Flux :: essays research papers

Permanent course 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 root of the journey, thus leading to the idea of the step, and so on. The steps forget surly follow an idea, but nevertheless the ideas will always stick in any action. Once one gets an idea in ones head, one must either forget it, or act on it. Such as the case with the starting signal 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 morose 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, wanted to know more virtually life, universe, the stars and most importantly, the being of it all. Though not the first of the original thinkers, Heraclitus o f Ephesus, was among this congregation of lovers of wisdom and revolutionized the world with his idea of being and allowed mankind to follow in his steps.The Pre-Socratics are known for creating philosophy by searching for a cerebral order to their world and their being. Prior to the philosophers, man simply accepted the mythological stories and supernatural imaginations. The philosophers, however, approached questions to by observing their surroundings. This was the world they could touch and feel, therefore fashioning it an ideal foundation to their quires. The first of the Pre-Socratics examined the natural world and assumed the kibosh 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 analyse them. Some deduced water to be the stuff, while others looked to air, or the earth to answ ers their zealous questions of being. Heraclitus, on the other hand, found a unity in all the elements, and related being to fire. His reference to fire, however, is purely metaphorical. spell his predecessors focused on the actual elements they felt were the stuff that made the creation 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.