Heraclitus

Introduction
1. Fl. 500 B.C. in Ephesus, north of Miletus in Asia Minor. He was known in antiquity as "the obscure." And even today, it is very difficult to be certain what Heraclitus was talking about. As Barnes says (Presocratics, p. 57):
"Heraclitus attracts exegetes as an empty jampot wasps; and each new wasp discerns traces of his own favourite flavour."
The reason for this is Heraclitus's dark and aphoristic style. He loved to appear to contradict himself. Some of his doctrines sound incoherent and self-contradictory even if he did not perhaps intend them that way.
2. One thing s…