Heraclitus

Also known as Heraclitus of Ephesus, Weeping Philosopher

Heraclitus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, both ancient and modern, through the works of such authors as Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger.

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Heraclitus of Ephesus was a male philosopher, writer, and physicist born in 535 BCE in Ephesus. He was a member of the Greek ethnic group and a citizen of Ephesus and the Achaemenid Empire. His native language was Ionic Greek, and he wrote in Ancient Greek. He was interested in metaphysics, language, and politics. Heraclitus was influenced by Hippasus and Xenophanes and taught Empedocles. He died in 470 BCE in Ephesus due to edema.

His work is associated with the Pre-Socratic philosophy, ancient philosophy, Western philosophy, and the Ionian School. He is described by sources including the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, The Nuttall Encyclopædia, Granat Encyclopedic Dictionary, and Pauly–Wissowa. His name in his native language is Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος. His writings appear in The Divine Comedy. He is also known by the author name Heraclitus of Ephesus.

Synthesized by Vinony from 26 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Europeana Sparql, Open Library. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works: 98

Top works

Prentice Hall Literature -- Platinum
Heraklit fragmente
Hērakleitos
Héraclite d'Ephèse Doctrines philosophiques
Allegoriae homericae qvae svb Heraclidis nomine fervntvr

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Key facts

Philosopher.region: Western philosophy
Philosopher.era: Pre-Socratic philosophy
Philosopher.image: Heraclitus_b_4_compressed.jpg
Philosopher.caption: Bust No 3. of the Hall of Philosophers, Capitoline Museum in Rome, identified as Heraclitus
Philosopher.name: Heraclitus
Philosopher.birth_place: Ephesus, Ionia, Persian Empire
Philosopher.death_place: Ephesus, Ionia, Delian League
Philosopher.school_tradition: Ionian

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Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Gender: male
Citizenship: Achaemenid Empire
Place of birth: Ephesus
Place of death: Ephesus
Occupation: physicist
Languages spoken: Ancient Greek
Native language: Ionic Greek
Field of work: philosophy
Movement: Ionian School
Image: Abraham Janssens - Heraclitus.jpg
Residence: Ephesus

Show 17 more facts

date of birth: 0535-00-00
Commons category: Heraclitus
date of death: 0470-00-00
described by source: Pauly–Wissowa
ethnic group: Greeks
cause of death: edema
topic's main category: Category:Heraclitus
student: Empedocles
name in native language: Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος
writing language: Ancient Greek
interested in: politics
influenced by: Xenophanes
present in work: The Divine Comedy
Commons Creator page: Heraclitus
manner of death: natural causes
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
significant place: Ephesus

Sources (5)

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Works in European collections

4 objects attributed to Heraclitus, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

Untitled

~52 min read

Encyclopedic overview

48 sections

Contents

Life
''On Nature''
Structure
Style
The Obscure
Philosophy
Unity of opposites and flux
''Panta rhei''
You cannot step into the same river twice
Strife is justice
''Logos''
Fire as the ''arche''
Cosmology
God
The Soul
Foreign influence
Persia
India
Egypt
Legacy
Ancient
Eleatics
Pluralists and atomists
Sophists
Plato and Aristotle
Stoics
Cynics
Pyrrhonists
Early Christianity
Weeping philosopher
Modern
Rationalism
British empiricism
Post-Kantianism
Heraclitean studies
Continental
Analytic
Notes
Explanatory notes
Fragment numbers
Citations
References
Ancient sources
Testimony
Fragments
Imitation
Modern scholarship
External links

Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrote a single work, of which only fragments survive. Even in ancient times, his paradoxical philosophy, appreciation for wordplay, and cryptic, oracular epigrams earned him the epithets "the dark" and "the obscure". He was considered arrogant and depressed, a misanthrope who was subject to melancholia. Consequently, he became known as "the weeping philosopher" in contrast to the ancient atomist philosopher Democritus, who was known as "the laughing philosopher".

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Heraclitus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.