Beginning of Universal Language

Heraclitus, Logos and the Beginning of Universal Language

Oneness of God Essay Series

By John Taylor; 26 March, 2006

Heraclitus resists more than most the usual sound-bite stereotype of
his thought since he taught that ideas are themselves reductionist
distortions and only resolve into opposites and contradiction. He
opposed the idealism of Parmenides, who believed that nothing can
possibly be moved at any time. On the contrary, our world is in
constant flux; you cannot reduce it to a single permanent reality. His
best known quip is that "one cannot step into the same river twice."
More elaborately, Aristotle reports that he said,

"Things grasped together: things whole, things not whole; being
brought together, being separated; consonant, dissonant. Out of all
things one thing, and out of one thing, all things." (Heraclitus,
Fragment 10, qi Aristotle, De mundo 5.396b20)

Although "change reposes," the fact that everything compulsorily
alternates from contrary to contrary means that "it is weariness to
keep toiling at the same things and always beginning again." (Six
Enneads) He did not carry this to a relativist extreme (though his
followers, the Heracliteans, did) for he believed that behind it all
sits that conductor prompting the symphony of change that he called
logos, word or reason. Plotinus points out that Heraclitus had a
"sense of bodily forms as things of ceaseless process and passage,
(and) knows the One as eternal and intellectual." (Six Enneads) Also,
Aristotle hinted that Heraclitus also came to grips with a form of the
self-annihilating liar's paradox,

"While the doctrine of Heraclitus, that all things are and are not,
seems to make everything true, that of Anaxagoras, that there is an
intermediate between the terms of a contradiction, seems to make
everything false; for when things are mixed, the mixture is neither
good nor not-good, so that one cannot say anything that is true."
(Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Heraclitus seems to have discerned the discovery of Twentieth Century
science that most cells in the human body are constantly dying and
being reborn over a seven year cycle, that there is no such thing as a
singular "me," for what am "I" but a huge colony of diverse living
entities. In my gut are wild bacteria very dangerous outside the
stomach, in my mouth are many forms of life, including amoebae. My
brain tosses about signals, images, words and ideas that lived
centuries before my birth and will continue for millennia after I die.
The minerals and substances that make up my body soon will recycle
into any number of other life forms. There is no me, only us, and I
can never have complete solitude, for in mind and body I am a colony
of many living beings.

The lasting contribution of Heraclitus is not to point out the
obvious, that all things move and remain in flux, but rather the
implication that the dance of everything is mediated by language, by
the words, meanings, signs and semiotics that inform, convey and limit
thought. The fact that all else ends in self destructing
contradictions means "not that something is or is not, but that
something has a meaning, so that we must argue from a definition, viz.
by assuming what falsity or truth means." (Aristotle, Metaphysics)
Ultimately, the only thing we can see, say or think is in and about
Logos, for all else reduces to contradiction and nothingness.

One follower of Heraclitus was Cratylus, who is said to have taught
Plato philosophy before Socrates took over the job. He took the
linguistic result of Logos ruling over contradicting opposites to its
logical conclusion; he is said to have ended his career in complete
silence, only pointing to things. Cratylus would have agreed with
Ludwig Wittgenstein, who ended his Tractatus with, "Of what we cannot
speak, we must remain silent," except that he actually did keep his
mouth shut. Aristotle describes the reasoning:

"And again, because they saw that all this world of nature is in
movement and that about that which changes no true statement can be
made, they said that of course, regarding that which everywhere in
every respect is changing, nothing could truly be affirmed. It was
this belief that blossomed into the most extreme of the views above
mentioned, that of the professed Heracliteans, such as was held by
Cratylus, who finally did not think it right to say anything but only
moved his finger, and criticized Heraclitus for saying that it is
impossible to step twice into the same river; for he thought one could
not do it even once." (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

Cratylus, even in going so far as to point his finger at things only
demonstrated how far he had slid down a very slippery slope of
self-contradiction. For if the river is so changeable that you cannot
even step into it once, how can you even point to it? It has already
become something else before you can lift a finger. Thus even his
token attempt at communication -- without resort to logos -- was
hypocritical and doomed to self-contradiction and deception.

I have gone into such detail about Heraclitus because his logos
represents the crux of the flux, a crucial turning point between word
and action; "thus far, and no further." The fact that his would-be
followers literally silenced themselves says a great deal about the
perfection of his conception.

It is no coincidence that John, the beloved disciple, seized upon
Heraclitus's notion of Logos and placed it at the center of what he
had learned from his direct and intimate experience of Jesus's life
and teaching. To understand God, Jesus's station and mission as Logos
is as close to perfection as can be imagined. Jesus, John taught,
stood as an instance in human form of logos, an entity whose very
nature creates oneness out of many. "Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we
are." (John 17:11) His sacrifice transcended all possible words, ideas
and theories, which are contradictory and deceptive. As Baha'u'llah
points out, Jesus self-silencing on the cross allowed Him by some
mystical empowerment to enter into every creative act that followed,
from then until eternity. Without Heraclitus and logos it would be no
more possible to understand Who Christ is than it would the Baha'i
concept of Manifestation.

Having all this under our belt, I plan next time to enter into another
implication of logos, the idea of a universal language for all humans.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com