Heraclitus’ cosmology, fire and conflict

The omnipresence of fire in knowledge and conflict is also confirmed by the ancient philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus. Heraclitus, like Bachelard, is preoccupied with natural elements and he is known to us particularly as the philosopher of fire. Heraclitus’ work dates from the period around 500 bc, some years before the Golden Age of Greece, when issues such as the origins of human nature, the world, the divine presence and the social and economic order were explained according to the culture of religious myths. The rise of natural philosophy marked the beginning of a new movement of thought according to which philosophy was considered as both investigation and instigation. The natural philosophers, as investigators, examined natural phenomena and tried to give a natural explanation for existing order. At the same time, as instigators, their role was to awaken the sleeping mind of people and elevate their spirit to a higher level of consciousness. Our knowledge of Heraclitus’ original doctrine is limited. This is because his writings were offered as a gift to Artemis and deposited in the precincts of her Temple in Ephesus, where they were eventually burnt by Herostratus. Nevertheless, his philosophy is referenced extensively by other ancient philosophers, and the latter’s writings are our main sources of his work.

Heraclitus’ thought was concerned with questions very familiar to us today. His main inquiry revolved around the way the One manifests itself in the Many and the way the Many obtain within themselves the One. This concept of unity, or of the One, appears in the cosmos as an interaction of four fundamental elements: fire, earth, air and water, with the emphasis on fire as a transforming and generative energy. Specifically,

fire’s alternations: first as sea, and of sea half earth and half lightning dispersed as sea, and measured in the same proportion as existed before it became earth (πυρός τροπαί πρώτον θάλασσα, θαλάσσης δε το μεν ήμισυ γη, το δε ήμισυ πρηστήρ…θάλασσα διαχέεται, και μετρέεται εις τον αυτόν λόγον, οκοίος πρόσθεν ην η γενέσθαι γη).²⁰

The significance of fire as the common element of the cosmos is revealed in a different fragment stating that:

this cosmos (the unity of all that is) was not made by immortal or mortal beings, but always was, is and will be an eternal fire, arising and subsiding in measure (Κόσμον τόνδε, τον αυτόν απάντων, ούτε τις θεών ούτε ανθρώπων εποίησεν αλλ’ήν αεί και εστίν και έσται πυρ αείζωον, απτόμενον μέτρα και αποσβεννύμενον μέτρα).²¹

These last words come to reveal the eternal nature of fire, or of the Logos,²² and we are introduced to another fundamental topic of his philosophy, the one of measure, or metron (μέτρον), which is the power that maintains order in the flux of the cosmos, the balance of forces keeping the earth in constant orbit. For Heraclitus, fire is associated with the concept of time and is constantly in movement, it is eternal. However, this movement is not linear but circular, hence its eternal nature. The three other elements of the fourfold – earth, air, water – are constantly present and are more predominant within space, but fire is the element that brings them into visibility by revealing them. Fire’s supremacy is distinct, and when it appears, its most divine and polemic manifestation is lightning, as ‘lightning directs everything’ (τα δε πάντα οιακίζει κεραυνός).²³

The controversy surrounding Heraclitus’ thought is worth mentioning. As the philosopher Kostas Axelos has mentioned, ‘Heraclitus himself is the actualisation of the unity of the opposites.’²⁴ Famously, Heraclitus supported the idea that ‘conflict is universal and that strife is right, and that all things happen through strife and necessity’ (πόλεμος πάντων μέν πατήρ έστι, πάντων δέ βασιλεύς. Ειδέναι δέ χρή τον πόλεμον εόντα ξυνόν, καί δίκη έριν, καί γινόμενα πάντα κατ’ έριν καί χρεώι).²⁵ For him, the universality of conflict and strife is central to human nature, cosmic motion and the workings of nature. The opposites, their opposition and their unity, are manifested in a constant motion, as in the case of a river:

New and different waters flow around those who step into the same river. It disperses and comes together … flows in and out … towards us and away … all things are in process and nothing stays still, and we cannot step twice in the same river (Ποταμοίσι τοίσιν αυτοίσιν εμβαίνουσιν, έτερα και έτερα ύδατα επιρρεί…σκίδνησι καί πάλιν συνάγει…και πρόσεισι και άπεισι. Ποταμοίς τοίς αυτοίς εμβαίνομεν τε καί ουκ εμβαίνομεν, ειμέν τε καί ουκ ειμέν).²⁶

The image of the river is a predominant feature in Heraclitus’ work. We can see it but we cannot dominate it, as it comes towards us and goes away.

In Heraclitus’ ancient philosophy, the cosmos emerged and evolved through the divine interaction of the elements of the fourfold – fire, earth, water, air – with fire as the guiding force. The Heraclitean cosmos is in perpetual flux, for if there is no movement, it ceases to exist. Yet what keeps the world moving is conflict, which is in all cases necessary. The conflict of opposites is the force that leads to the creation of something new: it generates life. This universal and life-giving aspect of conflict is associated with the eternal nature of fire where lightning is its supreme and most polemic manifestation. Accordingly, fire and conflict are interrelated, and are to be found in every dimension, eternally and universally.