Moral Flux

A number of contributors demonstrate that science is a value-laden enterprise, meaning we must reflect on its processes and findings ethically. The morals we can derive from flux ecology are even less certain. This is particularly true given that, as the volume points out, the myth of stability is entrenched and comfortable. In one of the more creative flourishes in the book, Patricia Ann Fleming inquires into some of the moral hypotheses that might be consistent with flux ecology, showing how challenging this extension will be and how it must extend to questions about the moral actor himself or herself, a stronghold of traditional religion.

Although I sympathize with the authors' intention to appeal to Americans, many of whom adhere to Christianity, I wonder whether something was lost with the Christian focus, and whether the conceptual foundation of the book would have been more defensible if built less on the expediency of appealing to the dominant tradition.

In this respect, it was surprising that neither Buddhism nor Islam even appears in the index, and that Hinduism appears only once, in connection with a single sentence in the book. Yet these religions certainly have something to offer.

For example, one of the key doctrines of Buddhism is anicca impermanence , which has tremendous relevance to the arguments made in this book. In summary, this book is engagingly written, and the editors have ensured that chapters based in the humanities engage with the biological sciences, and vice versa, which is no small order. Consequently, a wide range of chapters should be of interest to readers of BioScience , and I encourage them to look through the volume for sections that whet their appetite. Ultimately, our concerns about biodiversity do not arise solely from the natural sciences—they are moral concerns, too.

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View large Download slide. Email alerts New issue alert. Fire is constantly changing-but so is every other stuff. One thing is transformed into another in a cycle of changes. What is constant is not some stuff, but the overall process of change itself. There is a constant law of transformations, which is, perhaps, to be identified with the Logos.

Heraclitus may be saying that the Milesians correctly saw that one stuff turns into another in a series, but they incorrectly inferred from this that some one stuff is the source of everything else. There is no particular reason to promote one stuff at the expense of the others. What is important about the stuffs is that they change into others.

Is Morality Objective?

The one constant in the whole process is the law of change by which there is an order and sequence to the changes. If this is what Heraclitus has in mind, he goes beyond the physical theory of his early predecessors to arrive at something like a process philosophy with a sophisticated understanding of metaphysics. Heraclitus' criticisms and metaphysical speculations are grounded in a physical theory. He expresses the principles of his cosmology in a single sentence:.

This world-order, the same of all, no god nor man did create, but it ever was and is and will be: This passage contains the earliest extant philosophical use of the word kosmos, "world-order," denoting the organized world in which we live, with earth, sea, atmosphere, and heavens. While ancient sources understand Heraclitus as saying the world comes to be and then perishes in a fiery holocaust, only to be born again DK22A10 , the present passage seems to contradict this reading: Parts of it are being consumed by fire at any given time, but the whole remains.

Almost all other early cosmologists before and after Heraclitus explained the existence of the ordered world by recounting its origin out of elemental stuffs. Some also predicted the extinction of the world. But Heraclitus, the philosopher of flux, believes that as the stuffs turn into one another, the world itself remains stable. How can that be?

The turnings of fire: Sea is liquefied and measured into the same proportion as it had before it became earth. Fire is transformed into water "sea" of which half turns back into fire "firewind" and half into earth. Thus there is a sequence of stuffs: When earth turns back into sea, it occupies the same volume as it had before it turned into earth.

Thus we can recognize a primitive law of conservation-not precisely conservation of matter, at least the identity of the matter is not conserved, nor of mass, but at least an equivalence of matter is maintained. Although the fragments do not give detailed information about Heraclitus' physics, it seems likely that the amount of water that evaporates each day is balanced by the amount of stuff that precipitates as water, and so on, so that a balance of stuffs is maintained even though portions of stuff are constantly changing their identity.

Heraclitus criticizes the poet who said, 'would that strife might perish from among gods and men' [Homer Iliad We must recognize that war is common and strife is justice, and all things happen according to strife and necessity. War is the father of all and king of all, who manifested some as gods and some as men, who made some slaves and some freemen. In a tacit criticism of Anaximander, Heraclitus rejects the view that cosmic justice is designed to punish one opposite for its transgressions against another.

If it were not for the constant conflict of opposites, there would be no alternations of day and night, hot and cold, summer and winter, even life and death. Indeed, if some things did not die, others would not be born. Conflict does not interfere with life, but rather is a precondition of life. As we have seen, for Heraclitus fire changes into water and then into earth; earth changes into water and then into fire.

At the level of either cosmic bodies in which sea turns into fiery storms on the one hand and earth on the other or domestic activities in which, for instance, water boils out of a pot , there is constant flux among opposites. To maintain the balance of the world, we must posit an equal and opposite reaction to every change. Here again we find a unity of opposites, but no contradiction. One road is used to pursue two different routes. Daily traffic carries some travelers out of the city, while it brings some back in.

The image applies equally to physical theory: And it may apply to psychology and other domains as well. There has been some debate as to whether Heraclitus is chiefly a philosopher of nature a view championed by G. Kirk or a philosopher concerned with the human condition C. The opening words of Heraclitus' book DK22B1, quoted above seem to indicate that he will expound the nature of things in a way that will have profound implications for human life. In other words, he seems to see the theory of nature and the human condition as intimately connected. In fact, recently discovered papyri have shown that Heraclitus is concerned with technical questions of astronomy, not only with general theory.

Heraclitus | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

There is no reason, then, to think of him as solely a humanist or moral philosopher. On the other hand, it would be wrong to think of him as a straightforward natural philosopher in the manner of other Ionian philosophers, for he is deeply concerned with the moral implications of physical theory. To souls it is death to become water, to water death to become earth, but from earth water is born, and from water soul. If you went in search of it, you would not find the boundaries of the soul, though you traveled every road-so deep is its measure [ logos ].

Heraclitus (fl. c. 500 B.C.E.)

Drunkenness damages the soul by causing it to be moist, while a virtuous life keeps the soul dry and intelligent. Souls seem to be able to survive death and to fare according to their character. Speaking with sense we must rely on a common sense of all things, as a city relies on its wall, and much more reliably. For all human laws are nourished by the one divine law. For it prevails as far as it will and suffices for all and overflows. The laws provide a defense for a city and its way of life.

But the laws are not merely of local interest: Here we see the notion of a law of nature that informs human society as well as nature. There is a human cosmos that like the natural cosmos reflects an underlying order. The laws by which human societies are governed are not mere conventions, but are grounded in the ultimate nature of things. One cannot break a human law with impunity.

The notion of a law-like order in nature has antecedents in the theory of Anaximander, and the notion of an inherent moral law influences the Stoics in the 3rd century BCE. Heraclitus recognizes a divine unity behind the cosmos, one that is difficult to identify and perhaps impossible to separate from the processes of the cosmos:. God is day night, winter summer, war peace, satiety hunger, and it alters just as when it is mixed with incense is named according to the aroma of each.

Evidently the world either is god, or is a manifestation of the activity of god, which is somehow to be identified with the underlying order of things. God can be thought of as fire, but fire, as we have seen, is constantly changing, symbolic of transformation and process.

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Divinity is present in the world, but not as a conventional anthropomorphic being such as the Greeks worshiped. Heraclitus goes beyond the natural philosophy of the other Ionian philosophers to make profound criticisms and develop far-reaching implications of those criticisms. He suggests the first metaphysical foundation for philosophical speculation, anticipating process philosophy. And he makes human values a central concern of philosophy for the first time.

His aphoristic manner of expression and his manner of propounding general truths through concrete examples remained unique. Heraclitus's paradoxical exposition may have spurred Parmenides' rejection of Ionian philosophy. Empedocles and some medical writers echoed Heraclitean themes of alteration and ongoing process, while Democritus imitated his ethical observations.

Influenced by the teachings of the Heraclitean Cratylus, Plato saw the sensible world as exemplifying a Heraclitean flux.

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Plato and Aristotle both criticized Heraclitus for a radical theory that led to a denial of the Law of Non-Contradiction. The Stoics adopted Heraclitus's physical principles as the basis for their theories. Life and Times Heraclitus lived in Ephesus, an important city on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, not far from Miletus, the birthplace of philosophy.

Theory of Knowledge Heraclitus sees the great majority of human beings as lacking understanding: DK22B1 Most people sleep-walk through life, not understanding what is going on about them. What Heraclitus actually says is the following: On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow. DK22B12 There is an antithesis between 'same' and 'other. But if we look closer, we see that the unity in question is not identity: DK22B88 The second sentence in B88 gives the explanation for the first.

Criticism of Ionian Philosophy Heraclitus' theory can be understood as a response to the philosophy of his Ionian predecessors. Heraclitus observes, All things are an exchange for fire, and fire for all things, as goods for gold and gold for goods. DK22B90 We can measure all things against fire as a standard; there is an equivalence between all things and gold, but all things are not identical to gold. Physical Theory Heraclitus' criticisms and metaphysical speculations are grounded in a physical theory.

He expresses the principles of his cosmology in a single sentence: DK22B30 This passage contains the earliest extant philosophical use of the word kosmos, "world-order," denoting the organized world in which we live, with earth, sea, atmosphere, and heavens. Heraclitus explains the order and proportion in which the stuffs change: DK22B31a Sea is liquefied and measured into the same proportion as it had before it became earth. DK22B31b Fire is transformed into water "sea" of which half turns back into fire "firewind" and half into earth.

For Heraclitus, flux and opposition are necessary for life. Aristotle reports, Heraclitus criticizes the poet who said, 'would that strife might perish from among gods and men' [Homer Iliad DK22A22 Heraclitus views strife or conflict as maintaining the world: DK22B80 War is the father of all and king of all, who manifested some as gods and some as men, who made some slaves and some freemen. DK22B53 In a tacit criticism of Anaximander, Heraclitus rejects the view that cosmic justice is designed to punish one opposite for its transgressions against another.

Heraclitus observes, The road up and down is one and the same. DK22B60 Here again we find a unity of opposites, but no contradiction. Moral and Political Theory There has been some debate as to whether Heraclitus is chiefly a philosopher of nature a view championed by G.