[lit-ideas] Geary on Heraclitus

In a message dated 6/26/2009 3:15:26 P.M.  Eastern Daylight Time, 
atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I'm not a  philosopher.  I sometimes wonder why heat seeks out 
cold, but I soon  get bored and start whittling.  No service to mankind 
there.
-------   

Heraclitus found it useful to _write_ down his thoughts.
It _can_ be boring *to you* but not to *posterity*.
Heraclitus had few friends, and we cannot say his philosophy was motivated  
by his love of socialising.
But his theory of how heat seeks out cold is an eternal truth, of  
tautological conceptual epistemic status for which we will also revere  him.
He also thought that cold seeks out heat.
Indeed, he thought -- and this led to the Atomism of Democritus that a cold 
 atom and a hot atom may combine in a medium-temp molecule.
It's the 'why', not the 'how' or the 'what' that constitutes a true  
philosopher.
 
JLS
 
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