Heraclitus and Stoicism

Tony Doria and Billy Cosman

Heraclitus

• Pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher

• Born in the Greek city of Ephesus, Ionia (Asia

Minor)

• 535 BCE - 475 BCE

Where Did Stoics Find Influence?• “As a young man, Zeno of Citium is said to have consulted an oracle about what he

should do to live best: the gold told him ‘to be in close contact with the dead’ and Zeno understood this discouraging advice to mean ‘read the works of the ancients’ (D.L. VII.2).”

• Who did Zeno read? Homer, Hesiod and Heraclitus (?). We must question Herclitus due to there being little evidence that distinctly links Zeno and Herclitus apart from the ideas of later Stoics and Stoicism as a whole (Long, 35).

• It has been generally accepted that the early Stoics were most influenced by the Academy and the Lyceum. Key figures being: Aristotle, Theophrastus (and fellow Peripatetics), the Cynics and the Megarians (Long, 36).

Did Heraclitus Have Influence?• The general consensus among scholars has been Heraclitus had

little direct influence on Stoic thought (Long, 36).

• R.D. Hicks has discussed “two extremes.” First, Heraclitus had minimal influence. Secondly, Stoicism can be seen as a “diluted” and “distorted” Heracliteanism. Hicks personally took a middle ground (Long, 36).

• Hicks largely accepted standpoint allows Stoicism to widely differ from Heraclitus on many points, while allowing for convergence of the two philosophies surrounding certain conceptual ideas/themes (Long, 36).

Questions Against Heraclitus’ Impact

• “The process by which Heraclitus’ words were transmitted to the fourth century is an unsolved problem” (Long, 38).

• Scholars have argued that the interpretations of Heraclitus that the Stoics used came from others as opposed to Heraclitus’ direct works (Long, 38).

• Aristotle’s and particularly Theophrastus’ interpretations have been of particular interest to scholars (Long, 38).

More Reasons to Question?

• Because of questions in the linear progression of Hericlitus’ views, did the Stoics simply twist his views to conform to their own “preconceived needs” (Long, 38)?

• Friedrich Solmsen questions: “Are contemporary scholars, who treat the Stoic exegesis of Homer and Hesiod with a smile or a shrug of the shoulders, well advised if they accept the Stoic interest in Heraclitus as basis for their own appraisal of Stoicism and its place in the history of Greek thought? The Stoics’ fundamental debts in cosmology were to Plato, Aristotle and medical writers such as Diocles and Praxagoras” (Long, 37)

Long’s Argument Against Scholars

● “But at the present time there is a clear tendency among scholars to return to the view that Heraclitus’ impact upon the early Stoics was relatively insignificant.”(Long, 36).

● Reasons?

● “The reasons for this are closely bound up with the long overdue recognition that Stoicism was not an ad hoc and retrogressive system of dogmatic postulates but an important new development in greek philosophy.”(Long, 36).

● “It is reasonable to assume that the early Stoics had access to a series of texts, known as Heraclitus Book, which gave them as authoritative of a record to his work as the sources available to Aristotle and Theophrastus.”(Long, 38).

Cleanthes • Cleanthes is Longs prime example of how Heraclitus had a significant influence on

Stoic thought.

• Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus shares many ideas and statements that come directly from Heraclitus.

• “The thunderbolt steers all things”(Fr. 64) and “Every beast is driven to pasture by a blow”(Fr. 11).

• Shares Heraclitus’ ideas of logos and nomos

• “It is immediately evident that we have further indebtedness to Heraclitus in these lines. The eternal logos and the unity of all things are verbatim citations of Heraclitus (Fr. 50)” (Long, 48).

Cleanthes• Cleanthes does not simply interpret and discuss what Heraclitus thought.

• “What we have here is a remarkably interesting example of the constructive use of one thinkers work by another where the borrower proves to have a deep understanding of his creditors ideas without being slavishly bound to them.”(Long, 52).

• Arius Didymus’ report on his cosmology further provides evidence that Cleanthes closely read and was influenced by the works of Heraclitus.

• “The earliest clear reference by a Stoic to tonos, tension….”(Long, 52).

• “It has often been suggested that the Stoics found support for their concept of tension and tensional motion in Heraclitus’ “back-turning” or “back-stretched harmony”, Fr. 51, and that Cleanthes was the first Stoic to develop the concept in detail”(Long, 52).

Marcus Aurelius • “He regards Heraclitus as one of the great sages…”(Long, 56-57).

• Aurelius reflects on Heraclitus’ emphasis on the relativity of human judgement (VI.57).

• Dwells on the hidden nature of things(V.10, X.26) like Heraclitus did.

• “Even when he is apparently not alluding to Heraclitus, he uses word-play which Heraclitus would have approved.”(Long, 57).

• Reflects Heraclitus at many points.

Long’s Conclusion• The interpretation of Heraclitus’ role in Stoicism remains open for

discussion (Long, 57).

• Long’s Question: Can we deny that it(Heraclitus) was of decisive importance both in its acknowledged influence and in its formative effect?(Long, 57)