Perhaps the two most famous statements attributes to
Heraclitus are "everything flows" and "you cannot step in the same river twice, for
different and different waters will flow over you." Both of these fragments suggests
that in some way the world is in constant flux. Plato's Cratylus and Theaetetus are both
extended responses to the consequences of Heraclitean physics.
How can
we know or speak of a world in which there is no being but only becoming? The knowledge
one gains from perception is constantly obsolete as the perceived object will have
changed by the time perception is crystallized in memory. One cannot know what an object
is, but only what it was at the moment of perception. One cannot make general claims,
such as “humans are featherless bipeds” because that presumes stability. Nor can one
speak at all, for meaning in language presumes stable objects of reference or
signification for words.
No comments:
Post a Comment