Heraclitus: Pre-Socratic Philosophy

Professor Angie Hobbs gives an introductory discussion of the obscure, ancient Greek Pre-Socratic thinker, Heraclitus. This is from the University of Sheffield.
00:00 Introduction
06:50 Relativism
09:29 Flux
14:50 Fire
18:10 Language
20:53 Paradoxes
#Philosophy #Heraclitus

[@kavafikos]

It amazes me when I come across people who can simplify and transfer deep thinking while retaining its meaning. IF I HAD A TEACHER LIKE DR HOBBS AT UNIVERSITY, I WOULD NEVER HAVE LEFT UNIVERSITY; When I listen to her it becomes obvious to me why learning is and should be a life-long exercise. Lucky the students who have such a teacher!

[@enlightenedanalysis1071]

Excellent point. Agreed.

[@GeorgeK520]

When skills converge (subject matter expertise and teaching in this case) reduces the amount of individuals excelling in them. I also find that selecting the right university is also important.

[@belomolnar2128]

Me too. ❤. She is Great.

[@Pontiki1977]

@@enlightenedanalysis1071 Ms Hobbs is a genius. She is smarter than most of us and she is also focused on a specific art. That is why is she is a professor. We are being taught whatever by civil servants in our schools. But only universities have real tutors.

[@josephwinnard6666]

Agreed 100%! You can hear the passion for the subject matter exuding. This is the secret sauce to a great teacher and she demonstrates it in spades. Bravo!!

[@goodtothinkwith]

What a wonderful mind! Beautiful exposition

[@uniphcommunity.thewhitetower]

THE SUN IS NEW EVERY DAY! How poetic! If it weren't for Heraclitus and the rest of the Presocratics, there would not be so much progress in philosophical thinking from then on! Thanks, Professor!

[@FerozKhan-ss9nn]

This introduction of Heraclitus: this explanation of his thoughts is a great way of presenting the idea of the Ancient Greek philosopher so wonderfully. Dr. Hobbs has not only simplified the deep but obscure theory of Heraclitus in the most easy way possible but also has made it sure that it reaches the maximum readers who have some interest in the ancient philosophy of Heraclitus as a pre-Socratic philosopher. Overall treatment of Heraclitus in this manner has enlightened the watchers and acquainted them with the original Heraclitus and his teachings on the universe and its movement as was perceived in the remotest of times in history of mankind and their quest for knowledge. Pakistan

[@user-wi8vq3jo2z]

Incredible work!

[@kipwonder2233]

This woman is completely FABULOUS👏👏👏

[@genegoranov5865]

What a wonderful presentation !

[@saleban1]

Love Angie Hope.

[@inthetearoom]

what an amazing lady...how she lights up she was meant for this very inspiring

[@gangeladavid1495]

Brilliant presentation thank you for sharing as well as inspiring. I am studying philosophy and i found your talk interesting and very useful for my learning ❤

[@noshirm6285]

Dr. Hobbs is erudite and marvelously articulate. I found this presentation easier to grasp in a first listening than I did the one on Parmenides. I’ve also listened to Gadamer’s lecture on Heraclitus. Many thanks for your subtitles on that video. 🤗

[@carbonc6065]

Excellent.

[@chadpenner5059]

Her hair is amazing love it❤

[@mccoytg1]

As a student (old retired guy that just started learning about this stuff) it would be interesting to hear you place Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Plato on the timeline covering the transition from archaic period to the philosophical age. Explain the trajectory. And the change in how "Truth" was arrived at & communicated before and after. And look at both myth & language...in that context. Its interesting that traditional myth was discounted for logic & reason - expressed in language. But now with language (like myth) once again we question the medium's ability to communicate "Truth". Also "via negativa" (Apophatic) versus "paradox". Thanks for your lectures. Very informative.

[@Doctor.T.46]

Thank you so much for this. I love Heraclitus.

[@TeaParty1776]

He's changed.

[@reimannx33]

@@TeaParty1776 The more he changed, the more he stayed the same.

[@TeaParty1776]

@@reimannx33 change within a context. but H had no context, only changing chaos

[@TeaParty1776]

@Tony We are amused. But did you know that he said you can and cannot step into the same river twice.

[@jameswelch7523]

Thank you so much for the upload- I've been searching for this! :)

[@peterdixon9353]

Great stuff, any more of these?

[@Laurencemardon]

Heraclitus !!! My main man! What a treat: thank-you Philos Overdose ... cheers from Canada.

[@TeaParty1776]

If all changed randomly, you would be even more irrational than now. Youre trying to get high without having to pay. Wherever you go, there you are. Existence is identity.

[@tvshow5108]

Great narration. Great greak thinkers.

[@brainlife]

Brilliant

[@georgenajemy2165]

I am not smart enough to understand or critique what Ms. Hobbs explains but I do have just enough intelligence to appreciate how articulate she is when explaining complex ideas. A pleasure to listen to her and “try” to learn.

[@slicktrickyes]

“If those who guide you say: Look, the Kingdom is in the sky! Then the birds are closer than you. If they say: Look, it is in the sea! Then the fish already know it. The Kingdom is inside you, and it is outside you. When you know yourself, then you will be known, and you will know that you are the child of the Living Father; but if you do not know yourself, you will live in vain and you will be vanity.” - Some Guy

[@parallax7819]

One of the best "Gospels"

[@slicktrickyes]

@@parallax7819 👍🏻

[@thegroove2000]

Great thinkers indeed.

[@sensennsen]

Pure genius

[@SuperEbarnes]

Thank you Dr. Hobbes - most helpful! I may steal that splendid ending for my lecture on Heraclitus today.

[@norbertsarkozy]

I think that Hellenic philosophy was more deeply thought than we can imagine today. And I don't think so that they(Pre-Socratics) would solve ethical issues in any special way.They dealt with being, time, the individual and the being itself.Only Socrates and all the great ones after him and of course the Sophists began to moralize and "politicize".

[@garymelnyk7910]

If we could “understand” being and individuality then there would be no more need for moralising or politics. We would act according to the logos. With that forgotten all that’s left is talk of politics. Heraclitus was a true poet, and his exquisite words will echo in the caverns of the bosom as long as “heart and brain have faculty by nature to subsist”.

[@norbertsarkozy]

@@garymelnyk7910Yes, you are right if you understand logos as meaning argument from reason like Aristotle. But Heraclitus understood the word Logos differently . The Stoics take from Heraclitus the concept of logos, to which they attribute the meaning of world law: Logos is the inevitable destiny of the world.So what is important is the meaning we give to the word LOGOS.🙂

[@garymelnyk7910]

@@norbertsarkozy I try not to give any meaning to the word. I sit patiently waiting for the word to give of it’s own meaning, believing (as I have seen written by others) that “the logos that can be named is not the eternal logos”. In this case it is greater to receive than to give.

[@edwardd652]

One of the greatest disasters ever happened in human history, switching from Pre-socratics to Socrates. It changed the nature and understanding of Philosophy and opened the way to Christianity which enslaved REASON/LOGOS for hundreds of years and murdered Greek Ratioanilism.

[@SreematiMukherjee]

Excellent! Engaging and lucid. " Uncomprehending" is syntactically placed in an enigmatic manner, but I think it perhaps means that inscrutability underlies ultimate ( if at all possible ) meaning, or the Logos. "Logos" also means language and Heraclitus would then tie in with the poststructuralist position that language fails to yield a final meaning. Thus ambiguity, paradox, ellipses inhabit the core of the universe.

[@divertissementmonas]

The Yaminahau shamans use a metaphorical logic in the language they use to talk to the spirits. It's called 'tsai yoshtoyoshto' which means 'language -twisting-twisting'. A twisted-language that only they use. I suppose it could just be a conclusion of poststructral anthropologists though...

[@SreematiMukherjee]

@@divertissementmonas I see...interesting to know about the 'twisted' language of the shamans. The Yorubas in Africa have a trickster monkey in their symbology/ cosmology, whose language is 'double voiced'. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., uses the trope of the 'signifying monkey' to establish the double voicedness in the Black use of the English language.

[@divertissementmonas]

@@SreematiMukherjee That is a good example of acculturation.

[@TeaParty1776]

>poststructuralist position that language fails to yield a final meaning. “Like a spoiled, disillusioned child, who had expected predigested capsules of automatic knowledge, a logical positivist stamps his foot at reality and cries that context, integration, mental effort and first-hand inquiry are too much to expect of him, that he rejects so demanding a method of cognition, and that he will manufacture his own “constructs” from now on. (This amounts, in effect, to the declaration: “Since the intrinsic has failed us, “the subjective is our only alternative.”) The joke is on his listeners: it is this exponent of a primordial mystic’s craving for an effortless, rigid, automatic omniscience that modern men take for an advocate of a free-flowing, dynamic, progressive science.” Ayn Rand, "Intro. To Objectivist Epistemology.”

[@kreek22]

Metaphysics consists of a thousand different ways to empty the world of meaning. Far more difficult, perhaps impossible, is to add meaning to the world. Immutable structures, like math and logic, are discoverable, to be sure. But, they provide a map of true relations the teleology of which is inscrutable. Empirical science, being founded upon inductive reasoning, is not demonstrably immutable, howsoever useful for contingent human purposes. Metaphysics makes the grandest claims for itself, but offers only childish unveilings of the kenoma and the poetry of pure speculation.

[@Pontiki1977]

All words from that quote @8:00 are still used, in their original or in other forms, in modern Greek. Ποταμος, Αυτος, Μπαινω, Ετερα, Και, Υδατα, Επιρροη.

[@simossosias3727]

Heraclitus is for western philosophy what Lao Tzu is for eastern philosophy. They echoed each other but they never met.

[@sylvann7501]

The universal flow of the dao, yin and yang/dialectical unity of opposites.

[@williamevansstevens]

Exactly!

[@PinoSantilli-hp5qq]

Much Truth in Heraclitus! Just take the time to ponder it and you will understand.

[@EllaBugby]

A truly brilliant teacher, with such an eager spirit. Her depths of knowledge certainly rise to the surface in a fine way. As much as I respect Heraclitus' great mind, I do think that Parmenides alone hit the core of what we are: 'being'. Heraclitus, of course, had a firm conception of the importance of Logos, which is not completely dissimilar to ἐόν (being), as both terms point to the idea of all as one. Yet, Parmenides was clear when he distinguished the seeming (seeming being key here) world of change from unchanging Being, whereas Heraclitus was too caught up in hypothesising about change and motion - both of which do not really exist.

[@gordonely6911]

Truly most grateful am I for your pithy opinion on the merits of Parmenides’ and Heraclitus’ epistles 😳

[@jdzentrist8711]

So beautiful

[@jdzentrist8711]

❤I've just made a new friend 😊

[@belomolnar2128]

The Most Important Day in our human history was year 624 before our chronicle. The birth of THALES of Miletus it did start the Human ´s Philosophy. 🍀🍀🍀. We are having 2.600 years of the Humanity.

[@edwardd652]

The purest formation of FIRE is SUN. The energy of everything

[@mejoe444]

Hello from Ephesus.

[@machintelligence]

Nothing like a contradictory paradox to grab your attention and attract an audience. If you want to put a modern scientific spin on the idea that everything is fire; matter and energy are interchangeable. Therefore everything is energy (in one form or another.)

[@TeaParty1776]

Well, everything exists.

[@Rico-Suave_]

Watched all of it 28:33

[@thegroove2000]

Highly knowledgable lady.

[@lliihhaann]

his ideas are reminiscent of The Four Noble Truths

[@mills8102]

The logos which can be named is not the eternal logos.

[@garymelnyk7910]

Exactly! David J Barrow (RIP) from Cambridge University made an incredible statement: “A universe simple enough to be understood could not have created a mind capable of understanding it.” Too many people think that they know! But as Emily Dickinson said: “But what of that?”

[@iallalli5223]

HERACLITUS IS SAYING ABOUT YOU. HAVE NICE SUN LIGHT.

[@MacAirgialla]

Reads like St.Thomas Gospel. I think I have answer to the language/paradox issue. Or, rather I found the answer hiding in plain view..

[@Villainilla]

It makes sense now why Nietzsche really liked the pre-socratics, especially Heraclitus.

[@sylvann7501]

Despite how he rejects the logos?

[@sylvann7501]

He does have a sort of postmodernist approach of focusing on the unique identity of each thing rather than the unity of their components

[@painbow6528]

Her hair is the truest philosophy.

[@inthetearoom]

it's Heraclitus 's divine fire

[@acousticmotorbike2118]

Her hair is so beautiful

[@user-mj9iq5fy5r]

Angie is adorable

[@blackfeatherstill348]

Similar in thought and time to Zhuangzi

[@bill5922]

I am in the process of building a community with goal an environment where intelligent and ambitious people get value and help each other to reach their goals

[@lsdc1]

A meaningful goal. Any pointers?

[@TeaParty1776]

How can you help a dumb bunny moron who wont help himself? Value is not a mystical or social mystical revelation. It is action that furthers conditional life. And, for man, that requires a focused mind. Dumb bunnies have no mind, unfocused or not. Communism is a blood-drenched failure. You need to accept the risk of independent judgment and failure. And, then, as Frank Sinatra sings, "...when my chin is on the ground, I pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again." A society of dumb bunnies will become a bunny coat for fascists.

[@jurijsrjabokons7509]

Heraclitus said for the first: Everything is in a state of flux.

[@Anonymous_Prole]

An attractive and erudite lady explaining one the West's foundational thinkers.

[@shortattentionspantheatre5075]

Eironiea, in..deed...and in passivity

[@sergiosatelite467]

That voice. That hair. That Heraclitus.

[@scottwalker9766]

The logos. The living light.

[@scottwalker9766]

It is a Christian thing and I really don't confine myself.

[@scottwalker9766]

Uniqueness can only be defined by time a space.

[@scottwalker9766]

And both are arbitrary.

[@zombieeyedcunt4653]

Why does heraclitus look like Heisenberg about to lecture Jesse in the intro???

[@user-by4tr1ee9i]

HERACLETUS WAS THINKER PHILOSOPHERS AND PERHAPS THE FIRST THEORETICAL PHISICIST

[@Wholly_Fool]

Well it's clear where Nietzsche derived much of his whimsical nature from.

[@rahulthakar8006]

I don't think he is talking about geography when he said ' road up and down are one and the same ' 😅

[@user-gk5ze6lm1x]

I think the point is, that experience is differentiated but similar

[@waldwassermann]

All is Flux. The question is Why?

[@davidthurman3963]

Is that an actual question or a symptom? No matter how you answer I will ask why? Will that be an actual question or just a symptom?

[@waldwassermann]

@@davidthurman3963 The Solution asks all questions.

[@thegroove2000]

I'm here for the abundance of hair because I don't have any.

[@jacklin231]

🤣🤣

[@reimannx33]

That's not the only thing you don't have.

[@thegroove2000]

@@reimannx33 What else dont I have?

[@fredrickmwau764]

@@jacklin231and

[@fredrickmwau764]

@@jacklin231 and

[@evo1ov3]

Yeah, once you understand the Greeks used their alphabet, as their numeral system. And get a grasp of real word objects of arithmetic as they relate to geometry.... Heraclitus makes total sense.

[@stefos6431]

Professor Hobbs...you're #1 miss ;)

[@MyRealName148]

I knew her hairdresser. She said this women used a firecracker to comb her hair on a regular basis. But she is brilliant

[@jamesmiller3548]

She is a great teacher. My only problem is I cannot stop looking at her beautiful hair.

[@user-by4tr1ee9i]

ONE COULD SAY HE WAS PROVEN RIGHT IN 1930'S WHEN THE ATOM WAS PHOTOGRAPHED...

[@alexanderkane3960]

🤣🤣🤣

[@AsadAli-jc5tg]

I think Parmenides was a better thinker then Heraclitus.

[@peteryyz43]

Hair - aclitus.

[@susanshort9328]

I wish she would tell us what Heraclitus actually said

[@MindbodyMedic]

Clicked for the wonderful hair and was not disappointed.

[@akaalpaka3139]

This video is sponsored by John Frieda

[@Dazzletoad]

With all that obscurity the title of this show should have been: *'Heraclitus: Pre-Socratic Jordan B. Peterson.'*

[@feridunaksu9042]

Well designed interpretation of paradoxes and ecplanations and descriptions

[@dimitriosbetsis1509]

Jordan B. Peterson is a Scientist, in the extended sense used by Sociologists, whereas Heraclitus is more of an Epistemologist!

[@Dazzletoad]

@@dimitriosbetsis1509 My comment was sarcastic 🙄

[@albertklassen6055]

I think the pearl necklace is the perfect piece. I find myself wondering if it’s real or fake. If it’s fake, can we really and truly believe anything she says. Furthermore is she a she or perhaps a he in disguise or a they. I’m confused. And is it unacceptable to even make these observations or ask these questions. Are they crass and do they elicit an offensive response. Are they unethical.

[@BobHooker]

I think maybe she is beating the analogy a bit too much, why would be care if a damned river is the same river, I think the statement is about time.

[@hermanhale9258]

She talks like she is telling a horror story. Dopey for dopey people. Dagobert D. Runes translates that quote as: "Who rises in the same stream will always struggle with fresh waters." And he says,"this observation makes too little precise sense for us to attach much importance to it." Runes is pretty hard on the old-timers. "Vague speculations, grounded in superstition...often destructive influence on the minds of future generations."

[@albertklassen6055]

I came for knowledge and stayed for the hair. I keep on getting distracted . The accent doesn’t help either.

[@casteretpollux]

Why sit waving your hands at an empty chair? And breathy voice? I think Ill stick with reading the book.

[@mateuszliese1059]

All these pre-Socratics would have sent this postmodern feminist woman to what they felt was their domain, that being of course the kitchen and or fetching her husbands slippers. The irony of it all.

[@kreek22]

A philosophy professor is a slipper fetcher.

[@mateuszliese1059]

@@kreek22 And I ask: what do you have against slipper fetchers?

[@kreek22]

@@mateuszliese1059 How could I object to the natural order of things?

[@grosbeak6130]

Why do you name your KZbin channel with taking drugs?