Ancient philosophy. Heraclitus - there is an eternal movement in the world, and what is always seen is deceit /part 4/

The conversions that undergo the influence or the action of fire are three: solid / ground /, liquid / water / and gaseous / air /. These transformations in Heraclitus are sometimes called transformations of the fire itself, and this gave rise to reason and reason to think that the fire is similar to the material elements. In other cases, the name fire is called the gaseous state of things, as it actually exists with the greatest heat at the highest temperature. Therefore it is said that when the fire goes out, it emanates from it water, similar to when the cooling of the water vapor gives water; the water is cooled, the chill hardens. Heraclitus even talks about a double path in the universe: down and down. The downward path is the transition from the warmest and gaseous state to liquid to solid, and upward is the transition from the coldest solid state through the liquid to the gaseous.

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According to Heraclitus, as Clement of Alexandria admits: "This united and common world is not created by either God or man, but has always been and will always be an everlasting fire that is normally ignited and is normally extinguished ", (fragment 30). It means the world is eternal and inexhaustible. However, a constant change occurs due to the action of the fire. As we see, not only do individual things go the way up and down, but the world as a whole also spends fire and extinction periodically. In this respect, Heraclitus speaks of the so-called "Great Year," that is, the period of time during which the world passes from fires to extinction, then new fires, and this is repeated forever. Historians estimate the durability of the Great Year at 18,000 or 10,000 ordinary solar years. But this circle of the universe, according to Heraclitus, will end in a final and irreversible ignition and burning when "the fire will come and everything will judge and condemn" (fragment 66). These words, some historians interpret only as the last burn and compare it to Anaxemander's statements that the plurality will end with the last final influx into apeiron. However, we should not forget that the fire according to Heraclitus is both a reasonable and a life and divine beginning of the world. Then he could accept that this is not about the case mechanical extinction, but only to the last judgment of God, when, according to the words of St. Apost. Peter, "the present heavens and the earth, kept by the word of God with noise, will pass away, the elements will be blazing and will be destroyed, and the earth and all things on it will be burnt.

The world is the absolute rule and necessity. There is nothing accidental in it, but that, according to Heraclitus, is not a mechanical, blind need, and it is a reasonable expedience. As heat is inherent in the world, so is its intelligence. The universal mind Heraclitus calls with various names: divine law, justice / sophia / rational / wisdom / gnomi /, god / theos / or even straight with the name of the supreme god god Zeus . So we are getting closer to Heraclitus's understanding of religion. In this respect, philosophers with so high views of God and religion are rare. In the whole world, according to him, the will of a supreme Reason, a Logos that controls everything (Fragment 1,72), is realized. His will to be acquainted is a sign of true wisdom (Fragment 41,114). In this respect, Heraclitus uses a consonant and says that Divine Zeus, poetically "zoin" is "living" . But God, wisdom is not only immanent to the world, but above him, higher than him. Fragment 106 says, "Wisdom is everything." In this way the Divine Reason or Deity is accepted not only as a unity, but also as separate from everything. That is to say, it is unified at the same time and it is separated from everything and identical with the whole of the universe and excellent from it "immanent" and at the same time transcendent, as the modern philosopher would say.

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part 1

part 2

part 3