Vishwa
ADLURI Heraclitus on Thanatos: A
Philosophical Interpretation
Thanatos
(death) and related terms dominate the surviving
fragments. The themes signified by this term, provide an
essential key to understanding the philosophical project
of Heraclitus.
I
begin by reviewing three standard interpretations. These
are the ìlogos doctrine, the
"flux doctrine," and finally the monistic-eschatological
interpretation of Heraclitus. A central
philosophical problem remains unanswered in these
interpretations: How does he understand temporality, so
that both the transcendent logos doctrine
and the flux doctrine become possible in the first
place? And can we
ignore this temporal issue and justify a monistic
interpretation? The
problem is serious, as these models imply mutually
exclusive accounts of time. I argue that Heraclitus
uses thanatos to integrate two different
temporalities: an unchanging one enshrined in
logos, and another, manifest as flux.
A
philological analysis of the texts demonstrates the
significance of thanatos to Heraclitus.
"Thanatos" (and its forms such as thnesko,
apothnesko, tethneotos) is the most frequent term of
philosophical importance, occurring twelve times
(fragments 21, 26, 27, 36, 48, 62, 76, 77, 88).
Thanatos is not only the most frequent theme
(outnumbering psuche, logos, hen) in the writings
of Heraclitus, but also the most philosophically
significant. Heraclitus relates death to the life
and degeneration of men (88), to souls (psuchai,
36), fate (moira, 25), to ever-flowing fame
(kleos aenaon thneton, 29), to religious ritual,
to sleep (hupnos, 21), and to the immortals
(62). Yet there is
nothing morbid or otherworldly about Heraclitusí
extended meditation on death. Even though humans cannot
anticipate or comprehend what awaits them after death,
death is of deep philosophical significance (27). As
mortals, our temporality is defined by the paradoxical
presence of death in life.
Thanatos
imbues the Heraclitean universe with a surprisingly
complex temporality. His is not a simple universe of
eternal being nor is it one of rapid flux. Instead,
Heraclitus attempts to construct a mortal
temporality, with mortal life as the basic temporal
phenomenon. He then paradoxically unites life and death,
flux and stable logos
Heraclitean
meditations on time unfold a pan-mortal viewpoint that
includes an account of both mortals and immortals, and
thus flux and transcendence.
Thanatos rather than logos defines and describes
time as we mortals experience it, and by
extension, the kosmos which we mortals inhabit.
Logos serves
as a counterpoint.
va@presocratics.org