Customer Reviews (10)

Scholastically Incorrect But Philosophically Satisfying
Hillman's Fragments is not the most scholarly study of Heraclitus. Here Charles Kahn's dry as dust, ponderous tome, The Art and Thought of Heraclitus is better. It's also incredibly dull and a chore to read. If you are more interested in memorable meaning than scholarly explanation buy this edition but remember what you are getting. I own both and the Kahn source is a great depth book. Buy both and double the value of your experience of Heraclitus.

Heraclitus, Fragments
These fragments don't always fit together, but because of the unusual nature of a collection like this it is more than tolerable. The fragments are in Greek or Latin on the left side of the page with a translation on the right. The translations are vivid, almost poetic, although some of the terms that are explained in the introduction can throw off the flow of the words. Heraclitus is insightful, intriguing, and startlingly contemporary. The price may be a bit high, but is worth it for those who seek wisdom.

Poets Make the Best Translators
I know enough Greek to question the faithfulness of most of these poetic transliterations of the original.But that is beside the point.If you want a literal translation pick up a Harvard LCL edition and scan the dry as dust academic parallel rendering.I sometimes wonder if poets don't make the best translators.Here is a text vivid and gripping and sounding in modern ears with a booming resonance.

Additional thoughts:

1. This a beautifully produced edition with the Greek on the left and Haxton's fine poetry on the right.As usual, I skipped the foreward and notes preferring to commune directly with the Master rather than through the medium of a posturing chorus of academic factotums.

2. The information age was supposed to witness the twilight of the great age of printing.How wrong.It is a miracle that in this age Viking is publishing a side by side Greek and English version of a book two and half millennia old!Perhaps the great age of the Printed Book is only now dawning.

Possibly an "E" for "effort"..... maybe
As another reviewer said, (and i was thinking the same thing before i read their review), it seems geared toward upper middle class, bored housewives with little or no previous interest in ancient Greek philosophy.To still use the word "God" (capitalized) in a Heraclitus fragment is so blatant that it would surprise me if anyone who knows anything about the pre-socratics, and who has thought about their ideas would bother with such a book.No doubt that is what Mr. Haxton was wagering on before putting the original Greek next to the English translations.

I'm not degrading this merely because it is a coffee table book, i'm attacking it because it is in bad taste and adds absolutely no fresh perspective to Heraclitus' fragments or his life.I suggest looking at, instead, Luciano DeCrescenzo's "The History of Greek Philosophy Volume I:The Pre-Socratics" for a lively and interesting read (including biographical details).

"The Collected Wisdom..." is a hard cover as well, which makes not a lot of sense (other than the nice presentation) considering the length of the book.You could happily buy a book with all the fragments for nearly the same price or cheaper.No doubt the reason why Amazon knocked $6 off the original price was because there were too many unopened boxes collecting dust.Let the bookworms eat these ones.

The last thing we need is for the words of a man like Heraclitus to end up on bad robot-rock album covers or as band names (the same fate that Nietzsche now, regretfully, seems to be suffering from).It would seem that Roger Von Oech has decided to try his hand at the craps table as well with "Expect the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus".Are people really so dumb that they need these pre-digested, refined, books full of preservatives to inspire them?I am all for more simplified introductions, but if that means pandering and studying current trends, then what you'll always get is an ugly bastardization.The whole point of philosophy is to make people think!!

And yes, i realize that basically every translator of any kind of philosophy (regardless of time or place) uses "God" as a substitute for the original thinker's conception and belief system.I would call it Christian revisionism ... though it may also be because most translators cannot give their readers the benefit of the doubt and compromise their writings by pandering or making the work more digestible.Or simply because so few can translate from a more neutral standpoint or stand outside their religion for the sake of the writing.

a.n.

p.s. If anyone knows of any good translations of pre-Christian/non-Christian European philosophy which does not suffer from the aforementioned peccadillos, i would be interested to find out more about them

O.K. but could have been better
If you're looking to brush up on some of the roots of philosophy, this is a good book to read.This book is very short, hence why it is called Fragments.I read it in its entirety in an hour.I liked the fact that the author included the Greek translation along with the translation.However, the commentary is weak to be kind.There could have been much more regarding the influence of this work on the following Greek philosophers, or a look at parallel systems developing in the same time period.I recommend waiting for the paperback if one is ever published. ... Read more

Book Description
In the sixth century b.c.-twenty-five hundred years before Einstein-Heraclitus of Ephesus declared that energy is the essence of matter, that everything becomes energy in flux, in relativity. His great book, On Nature, the world's first coherent philosophical treatise and touchstone for Plato, Aristotle, and Marcus Aurelius, has long been lost to history-but its surviving fragments have for thousands of years tantalized our greatest thinkers, from Montaigne to Nietzsche, Heidegger to Jung. Now, acclaimed poet Brooks Haxton presents a powerful free-verse translation of all 130 surviving fragments of the teachings of Heraclitus, with the ancient Greek originals beautifully reproduced en face. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Abandoned in "Translation"
When I picked this volume up, I was quite excited to finally have the opportunity to read the fragments of Heraclitus.This particular volume is printed as a bilingual edition, with the Greek on the left page and the English "translation" on the right.This particular edition gives 130 Fragments as belonging to Heraclitus, but only translates 126 of them; the translator indicates that one was deleted in a prior edition (9), two fragments were repetitive (42 & 54), and another is omitted due to its overlapping with the two prior fragments.Apparently, the translator is going for some kind of narrative flow in the fragments and what the reader therefore gets is a Heraclitus that has been packaged for sale.

For aspiring scholars like me, however, the omission in the translation are only one concern.Of greater concern is when Brooks Paxton, the "translator", writes in his notes that he has "provided my own examples" (95, n. 16) within the actual text of the translation from other ancient Greek writings!So, not only are we getting a commodified Heraclitus, but a commodified Heraclitus that is also now intertextual with other ancient Greek literature that he not only never cited, but actually lived before they were written!Paxton then writes, "Heraclitus, no doubt, would have chosen other examples" (ibid.).One wonder why Paxton didn't just translate the examples that Heraclitus himself gave so that we might understand what it was that he was originally trying to get across.Further, Paxton even changes entirely the reference to a town in one of the fragments because little is known about the town that Heraclitus references (97 n. 112).

I myself do not know Greek, so I cannot comment upon how well translated these passages are.Given the above notes from Paxton's own hand, however, I am not willing to trust the translation - for all I know he has played fast and loose with it, going for the aesthetic feel of a word over (and perhaps even against!) what would actually communicate what Heraclitus actually wrote or said.I find it extremely disappointing that Penguin Classics would allow and publish such shoddy academic work.This book is of no use whatsoever to the lay person who wants to actually understand Heraclitus; it is of even less use to the student that would like a reliable translation to use for research.Fortunately, there are other translations - such Guy Davenport's Herakleitos and Diogenes - which aim at being responsible translations, in the belief that Heraclitus could - and will continue to - speak for himself.

Good for Greek, Despicable Translation
As a recent graduate of a Classics program and enthusiast of pre-Socratic philosophy, I was thrilled to see an edition of Heraclitus' fragments available with the original Greek text opposite an English translation (particularly because the Greek text of the Fragments is so hard to come by).To readers of Greek, the English translation will look poor if not atrocious and absurd. It aims to capture the 'sense' of the Greek while consistently avoiding more literal renderings. Sometimes a 'loose translation' is enjoyable, if not preferable - but here the supposedly 'poetic' translation is SO outrageous that I feel it does a grave injustice to Heraclitus' philosophy. There are two reasons to buy this book: 1) you are a student of Greek who can read the Greek text and appreciate it while ignoring the English translations on the right-facing pages, or 2) you want to read the English translations to get a taste of Heraclitus but feel inspired to learn the Greek by having its presence on the left-facing pages. No one should buy this book hoping to get an authoritative translation of Heraclitus.

Heraclitus and Fragments
This compilation of words by ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, is known as "Fragments" because there are no actual works by Heraclitus in existence today.There are only examples from antiquity where others quoted his long-lost works.This book is, therefore, a compilation of bits and pieces of Heraclitus' unique brand of philosophy.His thought reflects strains of ideas that the West did not hear of again until investigating the Buddha of the East.Heraclitus represents a kind of missing link of philosophy in a certain way, drawing our attention to a time in history when much different fundamental ideas could have shaped our minds to come for the next millenia.As an added benefit, each quote is shown with its representation in Greek as well as its translation in English.The author also supplies the reader with some background information to clarify and understand obscurities in his text that may not be so readily obvious.I found this to be an enjoyable book...

At Least it Has The Greek
If you know Greek, and don't care about using it as a reference work, this is a good, inexensive edition.It contains the fragments in Greek.

On the pages opposite the Greek, though, is not a translation.Instead, it is an adaptation into English.This adaptation is occasionally inspired, often mediocre, and almost never what Heraclitus said.

Not a translation, but renderings into 20th century New Age talk
Heraclitus' FRAGMENTS come here in the original with a facing-page translation by Brooks Haxton that tries to do to the pre-Socratic philosopher what no earlier translator has done, make him a New-Ageish wisdom poet in tune with our modern needs. It is a disastrous experiment, and I cannot recommend it either to students of Greek or readers interested in the pre-Socratics.

The problems here are legion. For one, Haxton doesn't use Diels' numbering scheme, favouring Bywater's dinosaur-era numbers, which means this work is out of touch with most collections of Heraclitus. The Greek typeface used is very idiosyncratic and not conformant to classical norms. But the translation itself is horrid.

A lot of what the reader is getting here simply isn't Heraclitus. Instead of providing a footnote with his opinion on what the fragment may mean in context, as reputable scholars would do, Haxton simply adds content to the translation. Unless he were to look at the translation notes in the back, the average reader would be unaware that much of what he was reading wasn't actual said by the philsopher, but is just one modern translator's opinion. Take, for example, Haxton's rendition of the fragment "Nyktipoloi, magoi, bakchoi, lenai, mustai", which is literally translated "Night-walkers, mages, bacchants, lenai, and the initiated", but which Haxton inexplicably expands to "Nightwalker [sic], magus, and their entourage, bacchants and mystics of the wine press, with stained faces, and damp wits". One that really takes the cake is 89: "Ex homine in tricennio potest avus haberi," which simply means "A man could be a grandfather in thirty years." Haxton somehow comes up with "Look: the baby born under the new moon under the old moon holds her grandchild in her arms".

This translation is a crime. If you are interested in Heraclitus' thought, try getting a reputable scholarly translation. Dennis Sweet's HERACLITUS: Translation and Analysis (University Press of America, 1995) is quite easily readable and entertaining. Stay far away from Haxton's kookish work. ... Read more

Book Description

The Phoenix Pre-Socratic series is designed for modern students of the Pre-Socratic philosophers.This volume provides the Greek text of Heraclitus with a new, facing page translation together with a commentary outlining the main problems of interpretation and the philosophical issues raised by Heraclitus' work.The volume also contains an English translation of substantial material from the ancient testimonia concerning Heraclitus' life and teaching, and offers selective bibliographic guidance.

While much of the commentary follows lines of interpretation that have won general acceptance, it differs from many in its claim that the logos of which Heraclitus speaks in fragments 1, 2 and 50 means, essentially, 'statement.'This statement, uttered in words by Heraclitus, reflects that statement everlastingly uttered by the cosmos itself, which descriptively tells of how things are and prescriptively lays don patterns of cosmic activity that serve as the basis for human laws (fragment 114). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The runt of the litter...
The Phoenix Pre-Socratics is a good book series, but I wasn't too impressed by this offering. Inwood's The Poem of Empedocles: A text and translation with a commentary (Phoenix Supplementary Volume) was a strong and substantial book, and Gallop's slim Parmenides of Elea: A text and translation with an introduction (Phoenix Supplementary Volume), despite its diminutive size, came with a fairly insightful commentary at the beginning.

T.M. Robinson's book on Heraclitus has its virtues. The translation is good. It often offers the original context in which a Heraclitean fragment was quoted by the ancient source. It is a handy, compact, quick reference to the fragments for the student or scholar who doesn't want to dig around in Charles Kahn's maze with only a jumble of Roman numerals to light the way (The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: An Edition of the Fragments with Translation and Commentary), and thus makes a good compliment to that or another edition of Heraclitus.

But the commentary is uninspired and anemic. I should note that Robinson is never foolish or careless--he is clearly competent. But his commentary is unremarkable and all too often fails to arrive at any real conclusions about Heraclitus' meaning. In fact, it pretty much seems cobbled together from the work of a few other scholars and the result is a fairly bland, fairly inconclusive series of notes on Heraclitus.

Thus, I highly recommend the book as an edition and translation of Heraclitus, but not as a general introduction to his writings. It makes an excellent companion to other works, and offers a few interesting bibliographical pointer, but that's about it.

history of scholarship neglected
In this text of the fragments there is not a single mention of the Bywater edition or of the excellent edition, now out of print,which includes the Bywater with a translation and commentary by Patrick ? --sorry, forgot the last name; but this edition can be borrowed from major academic libraries. What's the deal? ... Read more

Book Description
Behind the superficial obscurity of what fragments we have of Heraclitus' thought, Professor Kahn claims that it is possible to detect a systematic view of human existence, a theory of language which sees ambiguity as a device for the expression of multiple meaning, and a vision of human life and death within the larger order of nature. The fragments are presented here in a readable order; translation and commentary aim to make accessible the power and originality of a systematic thinker and the first great master of artistic prose. The commentary locates Heraclitus within the tradition of early Greek thought, but stresses the importance of his ideas for contemporary theories of language, literature and philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Still the standard, with good reason.
Kahn offers the fragments of Heraclitus in solid translation, with an extensive and thoughtful commentary that both takes account of a great deal of secondary literature and provides the author's own valuable insights.

Kahn's approach to the interpretation of Heraclitus is orthodox but sensitive. He appreciates Heraclitus' intentional and artful prose style, including his use of ambiguity and wordplay to create a multiplicity of meanings in many of the fragments. He also gives proper attention to the resonance between fragments, often picking up an echo of a word or image from one fragment while interpreting another.

I enjoyed and learned much from Kahn's commentary, though I would rate his overall success at drawing a systematic Heraclitean worldview from the fragments a limited success at best. In this I think he is surpassed by Roman Dilcher and perhaps M.L. West as well. However, Kahn's command of the ancient material, the secondary literature (in several languages), and the history and culture of the ancient world in general, is truly impressive. His erudition serves the reader very, very well, opening up a wealth of other sources and making connections that only someone with such a mastery of classical and archaic literature can. I would also strongly advise interested folks to hunt down the hundreds of footnotes in his already weighty commentary, as they frequently provide a gem of a comment or an important bibliographical reference.

All in all, this book is essential for any serious study of Heraclitus. Its staying power is testament to Kahn's superb work. I personally feel deeply in Professor Kahn's debt for his fine volume, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this. My one and only complaint has to do with his decision to reorder the fragments and number them with Roman numerals...it's truly and deeply annoying, but if this is the only fly in the ointment, I suppose we can forgive Charles Kahn. A wonderful book.

Interesting but there are alternatives
Rather than Charles H. Kahn's 'The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: An Edition of the Fragments with Translation and Commentary' (ISBN: 052128645X), I would suggest that those who are interested in acquiring an edition of Heraclitus which gives them the Greek text with translation and commentary look for a copy of Philip Wheelwright's possibly more interesting 'Heraclitus' (ISBN 0199240221).

I would also suggest that the more scholarly inclined turn to Thomas McEvilley's 'The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies' (ISBN 1581152035) where, in Chapter Two, 'The Problem of the One and the Many,' they will find a fascinating treatment of Heraclitus which goes far beyond anything Kahn has to offer.On page 149 of this same book they will find a valuable footnote (92) which will provide them with a good idea of the quality (or lack of it) of Kahn's 'scholarship.'

As for the general reader who simply wants to read an English translation of Heraclitus, their needs will perhaps be better served by a book such as Guy Davenport's '7 Greeks' (ISBN: 0811212882) which gives an excellent translation of the complete fragments.

Davenport's translations really are superb and the 124 fragments he gives us, which are tragically all that remain of Heraclitus, take up a mere 12 pages of his book.As a bonus, the remainder of '7 Greeks' is devoted to equally fine translations of Archilocus, Sappho, Alkman, Anacreon, Diogenes, and Herondas.

Davenport's Heraclitus is pithy, pungent, and very much to the point:

16. "Awake, we see a dying world; asleep, dreams."

82. "Defend the law as you would a city wall."

97. "Life is bitter and final, yet men cherish it and beget children to suffer the same fate."

107. "Having cut, burned, and poisoned the sick, the doctor then submits his bill."

Another of Davenport's 7 Greeks, Diogenes, was for me a wonderful find and I'm still chuckling over this one:

Diogenes 109. "I've seen Plato's cups and table, but not his cupness and tableness."

The affluent student who simply must own every edition of Heraclitus should by all means acquire Kahn (and also McEvilley who translates and comments on many of the fragments).Others may find Davenport's translations adequate to their needs, somewhat more memorable than Kahn's, and his book better value for money.

man is the measure. . .
This text is not for the beginning student in philosophy or philology.As someone interested in the history of philosophy, works like this compilation/commentary by Kahn are always valuable.The aim of this text is to provide a method for organizing the fragments of Heraclitus' philosophy in a manner that differs from the original Diels-Kranz method.Kahn's translations are markedly different from the now standard translations of Kirk and Raven; the differences are intertwined with the method of organizing the order of the fragments.In assessing any particular fragment in this work, one should always consult the Kirk-Raven text on the Presocratic Philosophers, have at least a passing knowledge of Greek, have read some Heidegger, and know a good bit about the controversy surrounding the arranging of the fragments.The arrangement of Heraclitus' fragments is a project that is just as perilous as attempting to ascertain the order in which Plato wrote his dialogues.I don't particularly find this sort of lexicography to be very fruitful in terms of having definitive answers, but Kahn's arrangement here is very good at placing itself within the context of what has come before in the way of scholarship.Referring back to any particular fragment in Diels-Kranz or Kirk and Raven is easy because Kahn cross-references each of his numbered translations with their numbering systems.It is hard to challenge the authority of this work, but it is by no means the final word on Heraclitus.

The foundation of all Western thought......
Devoid of all "Slave Morality" influences from Semitic thinking, Heraclitus is pure European thought at its finest.It's usually proclaimed, that all Western philosophies are but a footnote to Plato.I disagree.Even Plato is subjected to Heraclitus.These fragments shine through, and Charles Kahn does an excellent job of giving his opinions about each fragment without forcing them down your throat and proclaiming his opinions as 100% the ONLY way they can be understood (but, in my opinion, he makes a good case for this reasons).After reading these 123 fragments, you'll see that philosophers such as Plato through Hitler among others owe much of their thinking to this one man.An Excellent Read.

Inspirational for Certain Philosophers
One of the things that is most interesting to me about this book is the way it illustrates how we can know so much about someone whose main book is not available to us.By writing about nature in a way that emphasized thepower of fire, war, and strife, Heraclitus produced a book that was so wellknown to ancient writers that many of them lifted ideas for their ownpurposes.This combination of the knowledge that we have from many sourcesproduces a picture of the permutations that basic philosophy is prone tofall prey to in a history which never finds any particular idea useful forlong.I find the application of such ideas most interesting in the fieldof deep politics, where the idea of "killing the killers,"mentioned in connection with the riddle which Homer couldn't guess at thetime of his death according to the tradition explained in this book, couldbe related to some modern despicabilities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

After all these years, still a great guide to early Greek
I would like to suggest that the widest stance that I have encountered reading philosophy shows up in Greek on page 18 of HERACLITUS SEMINAR: Martin Heidegger and Eugen Fink, translated by Charles H. Seibert (Northwestern University Press, 1993). The English translation was copyright 1979 by The University of Alabama Press. First published in German as HERACLIT. I have the second paperbound printing, 1994. The hermeneutical circle is correlated to fragment 7, translated in Note 4 on page 163, but the discussion of the Greek terms involving a moving relatedness of things that actually exist which elucidates an indeterminate number of things of a quintessential kind. "In smoke, to be sure, things become elusive, but it does not eliminate those distinctions which become evident . . ." (Fink, p. 18). Heidegger becomes interested in the gnosis of "grasping humans" on page 19.

This book does not have an index. The page guide on page 171 shows that every ten pages in English is 16, 15, 14, or 17 pages in the German. Heraclitus wrote a book which was familiar to many thinkers in the ancient world, but all we can do now is "cast light on an inner coherence of the fragments' meaning, but without pretending to reconstruct the original form of Heraclitus' lost writing, [On Nature]. We shall attempt to trace a thread throughout the multiplicity of his sayings in the hope that a certain track can thereby show itself. Whether our arrangement of the fragments is better than that adopted by Diels is a question that should remain unsettled." (Fink, p. 4).

I believe the Fr. 1 mentioned by Heidegger on page 7 is the beginning of Heraclitus' book. In the discussion, we have the exchange of ideas:

Heidegger: Since when do we have concepts at all?
Participant: Only since Plato and Aristotle. We even have the first philosophical dictionary with Aristotle.
Heidegger: While Plato manages to deal with concepts only with difficulty, we see that Aristotle deals with them more easily.(p. 7).

One of the problems with concepts is how they are applied:

Heidegger: Thus, you mean the transformation of things with respect to one ground.
Fink: The ground meant here is not some substance or the absolute, but light and time. (p. 10).

Fink: . . . The transformations of fire then imply that everything goes over into everything; so that nothing retains the definiteness of its character but, following an indiscernable wisdom, moves itself throughout by opposites.
Heidegger: But why does Heraclitus then speak of steering?
Fink: The transformations of fire are in some measure a circular movement that gets steered by lightning, . . . The movement, in which everything moves throughout everything through opposites, gets guided.
Heidegger: But may we speak of opposites or of dialectic here at all? Heraclitus knows neither something of opposites nor of dialectic.
Fink: True, opposites are not thematic with Heraclitus. . . . (p. 11).

The set-up is basically a dialog, and considers topics like:

Fink: The problem of constitution in Husserl's phenomenology . . . (p. 84).

Heidegger: From this it follows once again that we may not interpret Heraclitus from a later time. (p. 85).
Fink: All the concepts that arise in the dispute over idealism and realism are insufficient to characterize the shining-forth, the coming-forth-to-appearance, of what is. It seems to me more propitious to speak of shining-forth than of shining-up. . . . (p. 85).

The poem "Hyperion" mentions Heraclitus and Heidegger discusses being as beauty in Hegel along with "The one that in itself distinguishes itself." (p. 113).

Participant: "There is no sentence of Heraclitus' that I have not taken up in my LOGIC."
Heidegger: What does this sentence mean? (p. 113).

Fr. 88 of Heraclitus, as Diels translates, "And it is always one and the same, what dwells (?) within us: living and dead and waking and sleeping and young and old. For this is changed over to that and that changed back over to this." (p. 118).

Heidegger then has to correct himself on Hegel by reading some lecture:

"The true deficiency of the Greek religion as opposed to the Christian is that in it appearance constitutes the highest form, in general, the whole of the divine, while in the Christian religion appearing obtains only as a moment of the divine." (p. 122).

But he can also complain about being translated into French:

Heidegger: In French, Dasein is translated by [being there], for example by Sartre. But with this, everything that was gained as a new position in BEING AND TIME is lost. Are humans there like a chair is there? (p. 126).

Heidegger is quite interested in how well he is understood in German, but he finally comes back to the plight of what is unthought in the end.

needless to say, it was all "Greek" to me...
I must admit from the outset that my familiarity with Heidegger's philosophy, not to mention Fink's (a philosopher I'd never heard of), is not up to par with my fellow commentators (this is a generous assessment in my favor, to say the least--and obvious). That said, this review is not intended to sway Heideggar junkies one way or the other re: purchase, nor will it aid those who know Heraclitus' Fragments backwards and forwards; I am not in a position to do either. I aim to address only those nonspecialists who--like myself--are interested in Heraclitus, and who are considering making a purchase for that reason, and that reason alone.

I ordered "The Heraclitus Seminar", perhaps naively, in order to gain a better understanding of Heraclitus and his Metaphysics--I came away from the ordeal completely dumbfounded. This is partially my own fault--I knew going in that Heidegger makes for difficult reading, and that his precipitous works are, almost without exception, extremely abstruse. As such, his books require great dedication and patience. This, I was prepared for. However, I came to an impasse with the book almost immediately. This resulted from the multitude of passages that were written, within the body of the text, in Attic Greek--with *no* translations. (no kidding)

This one is better left for the later grad students and/or their profs--that is, unless you happen to be an extremely patient novice, who can read Greek without a lexicon, and who has a penchant for Heideggarian analysis of the pre-Socratics.

A Great Intro. to Difficult Thinking
Martin Heidegger's special intellectual relationship with the Presocratics is often discussed as if the German philosopher was some sort of romantic originalist or nostalgist. But Heidegger always insisted that the point about going back to Heraclitus, Parmenides and rest was not to recover the specific contents of their thought (or, worse, to wallow in their supposed primitive "purity"), but to recapture the spirit of their efforts to "think the question of Being." You won't find a better presentation of this - or a more candid glimpse of Heidegger as a working philosopher - than in this text. It presents the record of a seminar on Heraclitus conducted by Heidegger and the German scholar Eugen Fink in the late 1960s. Heidegger's discussion of specific Heraclitian texts makes for difficult reading but is, generally speaking, quite lucid. And the dialog with Fink and student participants is eye-opening. (Heidegger's pronouncements are by no means always taken as Gospel!) Most important, in spite of their rather recondite subject matter, these seminar records wonderfully illuminate Heidegger's own philosophical development in the last two decades of his life. Although this book does require familiarity with Heidegger's work and somewhat unique philosophical terminology, as well as familiarity with the history of philosophy generally, I wouldn't call it a text "for specialists only." Unless, of course, all readers of philosophy are specialists! And it does provide a welcome corrective to current "New Age" tendencies to view Heraclitus and the other Presocratics as authors of quasi-religious wisdom manuals. No dumbing-down here; just a tough confrontation with difficult material!

Heidegger Freaked
In terms of personal experiences, Heidegger is most revealing on page 5, in the first session of a seminar in the winter semester of 1966-67, when he mentions in his third comment to the participants, "Suddenly I sawa single bolt of lightning, after which no more followed.My thought was:Zeus."This experience is a link to the antiquity also experienced inthe Biblical book of Job, in the speech of Elihu, at Job 36:27-33 and Job37:3-24, leading up to the speeches of Yahweh.By page 7 of thistranslation of the seminar, Heidegger is demonstrating his link with"Fr. 1" of Heraclitus by quoting more than five lines in theoriginal ancient Greek.Those who would prefer to know the English aregiven the Diels version in Note 3 on page 163.I find that Note 4, theDiels translation of Fragment 7, quoted (in Greek) by Eugen Fink in thesecond session of these seminars, is a bit easier for me to understand. The Glossary on pages 166 to 169 is a great guide to the Greek words forthe major topics in this book.There is no index, but the approach beingpursued in the fashion of this book could hardly gain any clarity by anattempt to locate the ideas in this book by any system related to pagenumbers.My comment on this reflects Heidegger's reaction to a participantwho noted that the first philosophical dictionary didn't occur untilAristotle.(p. 7)Before things were sorted out, Heraclitus was trying tocommunicate something in Fr. 11 about "Everything that crawls . .." (p. 31).The excitement picks up on page 32, when Fink quotes apoem by Holderlin called "Voice of the People." ... Read more

Book Description
"To be wise is one thing: to know the thought that directs all things through all things." "We should not act like the children of our parents." "I searched my nature." - from the Fragments of Heraclitus This bright, deep, meditative jewel-like study brings Heraclitus to life in a new way, and shows him to be one of the principal sources of Western mystical thinking. From Geldard's point of view, the study of Heraclitus is not just an academic matter but, on the contrary, presents us with very real existential and phenomenological challenges. The book includes new translations of all the essential fragments. Geldard, through his exploration of Heraclitus, shows us, "The more that human beings openly and humbly seek higher knowledge, the more they develop the power to perceive it, until finally they penetrate to the hidden universal order. The result of this penetration is knowledge of the Logos, that 'which directs all things through all things.' The acquisition of this knowledge is not an event; it is a stance in the world. It is Being in its fullness." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Finally....
....someone has given some long overdue credit to this brilliant pre-socratic philosopher.
Geldard has done a good job articulating and intelligently interpreting Heraclitus though, mildly clouded by his personal understanding and experiences.
In any case this is one of the best attempts to explain a very difficult and often confusing subject matter. The suggested readings at the back of the book were particularly helpful to me.

Heraclitus!
_Remembering Heraclitus_ is an exposition of the philosophy of Heraclitus as revealed to us in the few fragments of his that have been preserved.The book is quite profound and asks us questions that concern the very nature of man and his universe.The author describes Heraclitus as a thinker who rejected life in the political sphere for a life removed from the Greek polis where he could engage in speculation and his own researches into the process in all things.Central to his thought is the idea of Logos.This has influenced the thought of many future generations, as well as the Christian religion.By achieving contact with the Logos, man can achieve a more harmonious existence.Heraclitus can be understood using the concept of apophasis, or "affirmation through negation".This is a way of telling us what something is, by telling us what it is not.The author explains how this works for Heraclitus in much detail.The author also discusses such terms as physis (nature), ethos (human nature), and telos (purpose) and how they all play an essential role in the thinking of Heraclitus.He also discusses how Heraclitus' thinking is applicable to the modern day understanding of consciousness, modern day physics, society, and the historical understanding of the development of philosophy.Finally, the author discusses how one should view the notion of esotericism, esoteric thought, and whether we should reject, or alternatively, idolize the past.Heraclitus is indeed a fascinating figure, a philosopher, an alchemist, a teacher, and a profound thinker who has left his mark on Western civilization (and is even popular among some Eastern philosophers).And, this book is a fine survey of the meaning of his thought.

An academic and a brightly articulate study
In Remembering Heraclitus, educator and scholar Richard Geldard reveals Heraclitus as one of the principal sources of Western mystical thinking. With new translation of all the essential fragments of Heraclitus writings, readers are treated to both an academic and a brightly articulate study that present very real and contemporary existential and phenomenological challenges. Enhanced with appendices on "The Problem of the Text"; "The Essential Fragments"; Glossary of Greek Terms"; and "Suggested Readings", Remembering Heraclitus is rewarding and very highly recommended reading for students Greek antiquarian history, literature, culture, philosophy,religion, and metaphysics.

Looking for the Logos
Geldard does an admirable job of breathing life ("inspiring") into the few remaining fragments that we have from this foundational philospher.This book is a must-read if you are truly interested in intellectual history.Heraclitus stands as a hero of Western thought, challenging the mythopoetic conventions of the Archaic world, and really making possible the later investigations of the Sophists and Socrates himself.While I must confess to losing my way during some of Geldard's metaphysical arguments, such as our neural systems are some kind of antennae for tuning in the Logos as some kind of broadcast consciousness, I found the section on the Ethos as both compelling and relevant.I also recommend Beckett's "A New Stoicism" for those wishing to pursue a rigorous examination of the relevance of early ethical thought to our lives today, a period not dissimilar to the transition from the Archaic to the Classical period in Greece. ... Read more

Book Description
This English translation of Heraclitus' fragments combines all those generally accepted in modern scholarship. Dennis Sweet maintains the "flavor" of the Greek syntax as much as meaningful English will allow, and uses more archaic meanings over the later meanings. In the footnotes he includes, along with various textual and explanatory information, variant meanings of the most important terms so as to convey some of the semantical richness and layers of meaning which Heraclitus often utilizes. Contents: Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part One: Translation; Part II: Analysis; Analysis of Themes; Index of Persons; Index of Terms; Bibliography. ... Read more

Book Description
Taken from the Great Philosphers, Volume II.
... Read more

Amazon.com
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was the first "creativity teacher," says Roger von Oech, whose bestselling book A Whack on the Side of the Head set the standard for out-of-the-box thinking. In Expect the Unexpected, Von Oech uses 30 of Heraclitus's pithy and paradoxical epigrams to approach problems in a fresh manner. He explains his premise: "Creative thinking involves imagining familiar things in a new light, digging below the surface to find previously undetected patterns, and finding connections among unrelated phenomena."

Von Oech uses the epigrams as creativity exercises--accompanied by mental puzzles, anecdotes, questions, and punchy footnotes--to demonstrate that Heraclitus's 2,500-year-old creative insights have aged well. With his whimsical wand, von Oech transforms the epigram "A Donkey prefers garbage to gold" into an exploration of values. He uses Heraclitus's observation that "A wonderful harmony is created when we join together the seemingly unconnected" to examine the use of metaphors in understanding problems. When Heraclitus observes that "Dogs bark at what they don't understand," Von Oech crafts a meditation about criticism. Executives, students, teachers, and parents will find an exciting and entertaining map for changing thought patterns, tolerating ambiguity, confounding expectations, and searching for hidden meanings. --Barbara MackoffBook Description

"You can't step in the same river twice."
"Dogs bark at what they don't understand."

"The doctor inflicts pain to cure suffering."

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was famous for his brilliant and provocative sayings. Today, more than 2,500 years after they were written, his ideas about life, nature, and the cosmos remain as startlingly original as ever.

In Expect the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It), Roger von Oech uses thirty of Heraclitus' epigrams as springboards to dazzling creativity. Treating each saying as an inexhaustible source of inspiration, he supplies amusing anecdotes, mind-bending riddles, hidden jokes, and intriguing questions designed to topple old habits of thought and fire the imagination. Drawing on a cornucopia of examples from science, business, and the history of invention, as well as from literature (Through the Looking Glass) and popular culture (The Twilight Zone), von Oech shows you how to reverse your expectations, turn change to your advantage, create powerful metaphors, and avoid the pitfalls of "moreness" -- that is, assuming that more is automatically better -- to find novel solutions to even the most intractable problems.

Anyone searching for new approaches to problem solving -- from managers to students to artists -- will find in this book an invaluable tool. Whether you read it from start to finish as a creativity workbook, treat each insight as a morning meditation, or consult the book as a daily oracle, Expect the Unexpected offers a welcome jolt to the imagination. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Philosophy as if it Matters
I was first tempted to give this book only one star for disparaging the notion of "pure philosophy." But then I began to question what the purpose of philosophy was. Who has done philosophy more of a disservice, Von Oech, who sees the creative potential in Heraclitus and passes it on to willing readers, or the academics, who have purified and rarefied philosophy into something quite unrecognizable to the ancient Greeks? That was the easiest question I've had to answer in quite a while. Von Oech gets what the pointy-headed pettifoggers of academe do not: philosophy is only effective as it relates to the world. It is not a mere matter of linguistics nor an interpretation by each textual reader, but rather a force guiding humans towards creativity through its answers to our everyday questions. There was a time in the past when philosophers wrote for the educated public. Nowadays, philosophers write for other philosophers, substituting rhetoric and wordplay for creativity. The loser is our culture, which depends upon philosophy as a lynchpin.

Von Oech's fascination with Heraclitus goes back to 1971 while studying in Germany. Picking up a book of Heraclitus' epigrams, Von Oech became instantly hooked when he read "the way up and the way down are one and the same." He writes that this caused him to spend the next several weeks trying to figure out its meaning. Since then, he says, he's wanted to put out a "creativity tool" based on the works of Heraclitus.

And what a creativity tool he has created. His grasp of Heraclitus is firm and, moreover, he is able to apply each epigram he examines to the problems of thinking and creativity in the workplace. The reader will also notice a warmth coming through: a deep love of the subject and philosophy in general, something we do not always get from our academics, as anyone who had to sit through Philosophy 101 with a boring pedant will tell you. And Von Oech will succeed in doing what our friends in the ivory tower have failed to do, and that is to instill a love of wisdom in the heads of his students. For that, Roger von Oech, I salute you. ... Read more

Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

Book Description
If Heraclitus is one of our most ancient writers, Kafka seems especially modern. They share in a struggle between disclosure and obscurity that is perhaps as old as writing itself. In this lucid and engaging volume, David Schur takes us from philosophy to literature and back in a sustained examination of a fundamental philosophical metaphor: the way or path of method. Through close readings of texts by Heraclitus, Plato, Heidegger, Blanchot, and Kafka, he follows the development of a rhetorical commonplace into a distinctly Heraclitean paradox of method, concluding that Kafka's account of the way beyond mortal existence renews Heraclitus's emphasis on oblivion in the search for truth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Most insightful Kafka scholarship I've ever read.
In all my years I've never read a more thrilling account of Kafka's relation to the Western literary tradition.This is the sort of thing Stephen King might write if comparative literature was his field.Schur'sinsight about the role of the path in the Western canon was so profoundthat when I first read it I slid out of my rocking chair onto the floor. Fantastic. ... Read more

Book Description
An early epigram reported by Scythinus of Teos goes: "Do not be in a hurry to unwind to the centre-stick the roll of Heraclitus the Ephesian; the path is hard indeed to traverse. There is gloom and unrelieved darkness; but if an initiate lead you, it shines more brightly than the shining sun." ... Read more