This week, we are going back in time to the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers. Alfred North Whitehead, in his book Adventures in Ideas, made the oft-quoted observation that all philosophy is but a commentary on Plato. [1] It might equally be said that all of Plato is but a commentary on, and an extension of, pre-Socratic thought. The pre-Socratic thinkers have continuing relevance for philosophy. [2] In particular, Heraclitus, who maintained that the world is constantly in flux and conflict was important for Plato. Heraclitus is also important background for understanding Nietzsche and modern process thinking. The problems that consumed the pre-Socratics are the problems that challenge all human beings and remain relevant in every age. Although the answers human beings give to fundamental questions become more sophisticated, there is continuity in both the questions and answers.
Thales.
Histories of European philosophy normally begin with Thales of Miletus (circa 585 B.C.). Thales had some knowledge of mathematics and geometry and was famous for predicting an eclipse in the year 585 B.C. He speculated that all things humans observe can be reduced to water. If this sounds a bit simplistic, it helps to recognize what lies behind this conclusion. Thales believed that what we observe in the world is fundamentally explainable by something deeper that we do not directly observe. The idea that what we observe is not ultimate but that there are deeper layers of reality than appear on the surface of things is a major step in the emergence of a way of thinking we would call “theoretical.” Thales’ insight was not the result of observation alone but required an act of contemplation as to what lies beneath observable phenomena.
Anaximander
Thales’ follower, Anaximander (610-546 B.C.), speculated that the world we observe is not made up of any kind of earthly substance, such as fire, water, earth, or what have you. Instead, Anaximander believed that reality is made up of a “primal substance” that is infinite, eternal, and ageless. This primal substance can transform itself into the actual, physical substances we observe in the natural world. This is a major step beyond Thales. Anaximander had two insights of continuing importance:
- The world we see is made up of things we cannot directly see and observe. Today, we would call this unseen primary substance, “fundamental particles”.
- Second, the fundamental substance is not like other substances, bounded by space and time. It is, in fact, not a “substance” at all. Postmodern science would also agree with this observation. What is fundamental is not a “substance” as we use that term in ordinary life. Fundamental particles are wave-like disturbances in a universal field.
Plato, as we shall see, was motivated to locate what is eternal and foundational for the changing world of everyday life in something that is not a substance, but an ideal. This is the foundation of his theory of Forms. For Plato, forms are a non-material building block of reality.
Anaximander also began a way of thinking that we might call “evolutionary.” He theorized that the things we see were not so much “created” as “evolved” from a primary substance as a result of a principle of motion or what we might call “process.” The world as it exists today has not always been as is but has evolved over time. Modern science would agree with this idea.
Important for the development of political philosophy, Anaximander felt there was a kind of cosmic principle of justice at work in nature by which the world is seeking a state of equilibrium, what in Judeo-Christian terms we might call, “shalom,” or a state of proper relationships resulting in natural, personal and social peace. This insight is the beginning of the idea that there is a principle of justice or order at work in the natural world that might also be observed in human society and among human beings. Justice is somehow coordinated with the notion of a proper relationship between people.
Pythagoras
Pythagoras lived from four 570 to 490 B.C. He was originally from Samos, an island off the coast of modern Turkey. He eventually immigrated to southern Italy, where most of his philosophical activity occurred. Pythagoras was also important in the development of Plato’s thinking. In many situations, Plato seems to be expanding upon ideas that begin with Pythagoras. In particular, Plato’s theory of the Forms (ideal forms of reality) extends Pythagoras’s view that mathematics is the fundamental reality. It is likely that Plato’s idea of forming the Academy, the first philosophical school in western history, was somewhat pattered upon the community formed by Pythagoras in southern Italy.
If Anaximander represented an evolutionary, scientific move in Greek thought, Pythagoras represents a movement towards an idealistic, mystical, and mathematical interpretation of the world and human life. Pythagoras saw the physical world as a representation of an immaterial, spiritual, and ideal reality, of which mathematics represents the supreme achievement. In this view, the fundamental reality was mathematical.
Plato also looks beneath the flux of ever-changing material reality and seeks an ideal world of order upon which the material universe depends. He identifies the Pythagorean notion of mathematical reality with his idea of Forms, which possess a kind of Pythagorean ideal reality. Beyond the flux of everyday life and experience, there is an unchanging noetic world of Forms that yield unity instability to the world. The ideal world of the Forms gives an order to notions of truth, goodness, justice, and morality. It ties the ideal world of philosophers with the concrete world of ordinary life. In later life, Plato was even more attracted to Pythagoras, and the abstract ideal of mathematics was important in his developing thought.
For Pythagoras, numbers are fundamental to reality. They are real and exist, not in this material world but in a world of completely abstract ideas. Let us take the so-called “Pythagorean theorem”. It states that the square of the hypotenuse of a triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Pythagoras is normally described as having “discovered” this relationship not created it. The word “discover” implies that the relationship existed before it was discovered. It is a part of reality, not just a “calculating convenience” human beings have adopted. In other words, the Pythagorean theorem is in some sense a description of an invisible realm of numerical relations that exists whether we understand it or not.
Pythagoras’s idea that the world is made up of numbers resonates with both modern idealistic philosophy and the writings of those who regard information as fundamental and the world as something of a gigantic computer. In these interpretations of fundamental reality, consciousness, and human perception (ideas) cannot be excluded from our definition of reality, and in some sense, human consciousness is fundamental to reality. Mind and matter are related so that matter is not fundamental—an observation that modern quantum physics supports. In any case, in any such interpretation, the ultimate building blocks of the universe are not material but ideal or “noetic.”
Heraclitus
This brings us to Heraclitus (5th-6th Century), a philosopher of the first rank, famous for considering the ultimate reality as a kind of flux or motion. He wrote in an aphoristic style, and his most famous saying has to do with the observation that in some sense, “One never steps into the same river twice,” for the water into which we step flows downstream, and, when we step again into a river, in some way it is a “new river.” For Heraclitus, the world and human existence are not stable but constantly changing. Many philosophers see in Heraclitus the beginning of what we call “process philosophy,” which in the 20th Century produced the work of Bergson, Hartshorne, Peirce, Royce, Teilhard de Chardin, and Whitehead, among others.
Commensurate with his idea of reality as a relational process, Heraclitus believed that the fundamental element of the universe was fire. Fire is not a strictly material thing. Fire exists as heat consumes whatever is burned in the fire. The heat of a fire is not a visible, tangible reality. It might be that Heraclitus is a materialist of sorts, but it is not clear to me that this is the case.
Heraclitus represents another aspect of a process notion of reality: the idea that the world we perceive is in a constant state of motion and change. For Heraclitus, there is no stable structure to the universe. It is “one colossal process” of events, changes, evolving facts, and the like. [3] Material things are not fundamental. The ever-changing process of the world is fundamental. Heraclitus’ choice of fire as fundamental indicates a tendency to see matter as a derivative of something powerful that is in itself fully material, an observation shared by modern quantum theory.
Heraclitus had a political philosophy that derived from his theories (or was perhaps the cause of his theories). During his lifetime, Heraclitus, a member of the royal family, experienced the dissolution of the ancient laws of Ephesus. He experienced the excesses of a democracy that descended to mob rule. He saw an older, traditional way of life disappear. Thus, his notion of the inevitability of change extends to his political thought. He did not believe that any concrete set of social institutions or political order could sustain itself forever. Not only was the universe subject to the law of change, but so were human institutions. [4]
Heraclitus had a “Darwinesque” vision of political reality as determined by force and conflict. Heraclitus saw what he called “strife” as a fundamental aspect of reality, evident in nature and human striving. He felt that this strife, what we might call the “struggle for survival,” is fundamental to human life and human society. Thus, he glorified war and minimized the persuasive and relational forces of society and human relationships. Not only is Heraclitus the founder of what we might call process philosophy, but he is also a forerunner of modern theories of power politics. Heraclitus viewed strife as a fundamental principle of reality and social life and viewed war as a fundamental fact of social revolution.
Heraclitus was a cynic concerning political virtue as a separate ideal and seems to have supported existing institutions. In political theory, he represents the view that personal virtue is the source of political morality. He criticized his fellow citizens for banishing a distinguished leader. He distrusted political democracy and thinks that few people possess the virtue necessary for a polity to thrive. Like Plato, Heraclitus believed that just laws reflect and grow out of the implantation of universal principles by the state. His notion of justice may also have been an outgrowth of his belief in reality as emerging from a conflict of opposites. [5]
Conclusion
Karl Popper sees similarities between Heraclitus and modern political theories and between the times in which Heraclitus lived and our times:
It is surprising to find in these early fragments dating from about 500 BC, so much that is characteristic of modern historicist and anti-democratic tendencies. But apart from the fact that Heraclitus was a thinker of unsurpassed power and originality, and that, in consequence, many of his ideas have (through the medium of Plato) become part of the main body of philosophical tradition, the similarity of doctrine can perhaps, be explained, to some extent, by the similarity of social conditions in the relevant periods it seems as if his store assist ideas easily become prominent in times of great social change. [6]
During times of social change, it is easy to abandon stable notions of justice and adopt radical, even revolutionary, and harmful ideas. The dislocations of the Industrial Revolution (with the consequent emergence of Marxism) and the current dislocations of the information age revolution and the emergence of a “Post-Modern Era” (and the temptation towards a technological oligarchy) are symptoms of the results of vast and not clearly understood intellectual, social, and political changes.
Copyright 2023, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved
[1] A. N. Whitehead, Adventure of Ideas (New York, NY: Free Press, 1933),
[2] See, Bertrand Russell, History of Philosophy (New York, NY: Simon & Shuster, 1945) for an extended treatment. My rendition of the pre-Socratic philosophers is based primarily on Russell’s work.
[3] I owe this insight to Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), 11.
[4] Id.
[5] Graham, Daniel W., “Heraclitus”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/heraclitus/>. (Downloaded November 1, 2022).
[6] Popper, at 16.