Page 10 - GALIET THE RIVERING WATERS: Heraclitus IV

(f) “The sun, according to Heraclitus, is new each day.”12 T7
These fragments do not appear to suggest that things do not retain their identity or that they do not persist. Plato’s testimony of Heraclitus that “...one cannot step twice into the same river”13 reveals that in the same river, different waters perennially flow; that is, one enters the ‘same’ and ‘different’ river. In this sense, both aspects, same and different, belong in the one. This interpretation has affinity with Heraclitus’ theory of unity of opposites.
Moreover, in T3, Heraclitus says, ‘we step and do not step into the same rivers, we are and are not.’”14 Hermeneutically, this can equally be read as “when we step in the same rivers, we are, and when we do not step in the same rivers, we are not.” Indeed, Heraclitus is obscure. However, the sameness of the river seems to symbolize the crystalline rivers of beingness: the river that sings and runs through every human heart; the river of sadness giving way to joy, of hope giving way to despair, of life giving way to death, of sleep giving way
12 Aristotle. On Celestial Phenomena 355a13-14 Bekker. 43. See also note 43 of Waterfield. He adds that Plato uses this idea in the Republic 498a6-b1, arguing that dying dilettante philosophers ‘snuffed out more thoroughly than Heraclitus’ sun, since they are never rekindled later.’ Aristotle. The Basic Works of Aristotle. De Caelo. Ed. Richard McKeon. New York: The Modern Library, 2001. 317
13 Plato. Cratylus. 402a8-10 Duke et al. 41. Plato. Complete Works. Cratylus. Ed. John M. Cooper. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing, 1997.
14 Heraclitus Homericus, Homeric Questions, 24.10-12 Oelmann 41. On page 317 of Waterfield, see note 41. Waterfield says, “with regards to we are and are not, it is possible that an original single fragment of the river existed from which these testimonies derive.”
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