I. Heraclitus
30. Kosmos: the same for all, no man or god has made, but it ever was and ever will be: fire everliving, kindled in measures and in measures going out.
Here, Heraclitus reveals his paradoxical thinking about the nature of the universe. The universe (Kosmos/cosmos) is simultaneously limited and limitless. The fire of life is “kindled in measures,” meaning it is ignited within a specific space/time unit, and it is also meted out according to an ordered, measurable, and likely mathematical means. Yet at the same time, that fire is “everliving,” referring to an eternal flame. It is also eternal in that it “ever was and ever will be.” Through this statement Heraclitus explains simply the notions of timelessness: that all time exists simultaneously. The riddle of the passage is given “it ever was and ever will be,” how was the fire ever kindled in the first place. The answer to the riddle is found earlier in the passage: “no man or god has made” the eternal flame of the Kosmos. That flame was never kindled in the sense that human beings can understand; rather it exists in a state of being and no-being simultaneously.
124. Kosmos is a heap of random sweepings.
Here, Heraclitus offers an ironic, almost humorous description of the cosmos/Kosmos. As a “heap of random sweepings,” the universe is practically a midden. Heraclitus shows how the universe has an underlying chaos in spite of its semblance of order. Linked with the paradoxes inherent in #30, Heraclitus presents a remarkably unified cosmology.
94. The Sun will not transgress his...
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