Heraclitus of Ephesus was an Ancient Greek, pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher, a native of the city of Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey, then part of the Persian Empire.

His like of word play as well as the oracular and paradoxical nature of his philosophy had him called "The Obscure" since antiquity. He wrote a single work, On Nature, but the obscurity is made worse by its remaining only in fragments. His cryptic utterances have been the subject of numerous interpretations. He has been seen variously as a "material monist or a process philosopher; a scientific cosmologist, a metaphysician, or mainly a religious thinker; an empiricist, a rationalist, or a mystic; a conventional thinker or a revolutionary; a developer of logic or one who denied the law of non-contradiction; the first genuine philosopher or an anti-intellectual obscurantist."

He was of distinguished parentage but eschewed his privileged life for a lonely one as a philosopher. Little else is known about his early life and education. He regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. He was considered a misanthrope given to depression; he was called "the weeping philosopher", in contrast to Democritus, "the laughing philosopher".

Heraclitus believed the world was in accordance with Logos (literally, "word", "reason", or "account") as well as ultimately made of fire. He also believed in a unity of opposites and harmony in the world. He was most famous for his insistence on ever-present change, or flux or becoming, as the characteristic feature of the world, as stated in the famous saying, "No man ever steps in the same river twice" as well as "panta rhei", everything flows. This aspect of his philosophy is contrasted with that of Parmenides, who believed in being, and that nothing changes. Both had an influence on Plato and thus, arguably, on all of Western philosophy.... More • http://en.wikipedia. ... Heraclitus View • Books • Images • Videos • Search Related • Philosophers • Iron Age • Turkey • Turkey (Europe) • People