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Heraclitus on Religion

Heraclitus on Religion Abstract: The question of what exactly Heraclitus’ views on religion were is one of the most difficult and controversial of all the problems that make his philosophy so perplexing, and so fascinating. I outline four images of Heraclitus that have shaped understandings of his views on religion in the past, and then provide an interpretation of the relevant texts, especially B5, B14, B15, B32, B93, and B51 D-K. The gods that interest Heraclitus are not those of the poets but those of the city and the mysteries, and it is these that he tries to set into relation with his philosophical views. The result is not so much polemic as rather selection and accommodation. Unlike most of his Presocratic colleagues, Heraclitus does not discard wholesale the traditional apparatus of Greek gods and replace it with his own philosophical henotheism. Instead, he seems in general to be applying his philosophical reason to the phenomenon of Greek religion with a fundamentally conservative intent, rejecting what he must, saving what he can by reinterpreting it. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Rhizomata de Gruyter

Heraclitus on Religion

Most, Glenn
Rhizomata , Volume 1 (2) – Dec 1, 2013
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15 pages

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the
ISSN
2196-5102
eISSN
2196-5110
DOI
10.1515/rhiz-2013-0007
Publisher site
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Abstract

Abstract: The question of what exactly Heraclitus’ views on religion were is one of the most difficult and controversial of all the problems that make his philosophy so perplexing, and so fascinating. I outline four images of Heraclitus that have shaped understandings of his views on religion in the past, and then provide an interpretation of the relevant texts, especially B5, B14, B15, B32, B93, and B51 D-K. The gods that interest Heraclitus are not those of the poets but those of the city and the mysteries, and it is these that he tries to set into relation with his philosophical views. The result is not so much polemic as rather selection and accommodation. Unlike most of his Presocratic colleagues, Heraclitus does not discard wholesale the traditional apparatus of Greek gods and replace it with his own philosophical henotheism. Instead, he seems in general to be applying his philosophical reason to the phenomenon of Greek religion with a fundamentally conservative intent, rejecting what he must, saving what he can by reinterpreting it.

Journal

Rhizomata – de Gruyter

Published: Dec 1, 2013

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