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Recovering Heraclitus: Neglected Religious, Ethical and Political Themes in the Work of a Pre-Socratic Thinker Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations January 2019 Recovering Heraclitus: Neglected Religious, Ethical And Political Themes In The Work Of A Pre-Socratic Thinker Thomas Joseph Wood Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the History Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Wood, Thomas Joseph, "Recovering Heraclitus: Neglected Religious, Ethical And Political Themes In The Work Of A Pre-Socratic Thinker" (2019). Wayne State University Dissertations. 2232. https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/2232 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. RECOVERING HERACLITUS: NEGLECTED RELIGIOUS, ETHICAL, AND POLITICAL THEMES IN THE WORK OF A PRE-SOCRATIC THINKER by THOMAS JOSEPH WOOD DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2019 MAJOR: PHILOSOPHY Approved By: _________________________________________ Advisor Date _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY THOMAS JOSEPH WOOD 2019 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION For my parents who inexplicably think I am smarter than I am. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to express my sincere thanks to the faculty of Wayne State University Department of Philosophy for their support and guidance during my tenure as a graduate student. My deepest gratitude goes to the members of my committee: Josh Wilburn, Lawrence Lombard, Jonathan Cottrell, Sean Stidd, and Thomas Anderson; without their aid as teachers and support as advisors this document would not exist. Extra thanks to my advisor Josh Wilburn for putting up with my eternal puzzlement about Plato. I would also like to thank a few other faculty members who have helped me along the way. Thanks go to Susan Vineberg for several nonsense free discussions about philosophy and life. Thanks also go to John Corvino and Katherine Kim for hiring me as their research assistant on different projects which required as much of me as a lawyer as they did of me as of a philosopher. Special thanks go to Michael McKinsey and Ryan Fanselow for being the most understanding bosses that a teaching assistant could ask for. Finally, I want to thank my parents Tom and Grace Wood for their support and care during this process (and for taking me to Athens, Eleusis, and Delphi). iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................................ iii INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: HERACLITUS IN CONTEXT ...................................................................................................... 4 I. Interpreting Heraclitus ......................................................................................................................................... 4 A. Heraclitus the Obscure..................................................................................................................................... 4 B. The Commentarial Tradition and the Subject Matter of Heraclitus’ Book ..................................... 7 C. The Need for Historical Context ................................................................................................................. 10 II. Initial Objections to this Project .................................................................................................................. 12 A. On the Title ‘Peri Physeos’ ............................................................................................................................ 12 B. Do We Have Too Little Historical Context? ........................................................................................... 15 III. Heraclitus: The Biographical Details in Historical Context .............................................................. 25 A. The Biography ................................................................................................................................................... 25 B. History of Ephesus .......................................................................................................................................... 26 IV. A Brief Summary of My Argument ............................................................................................................. 32 A. An Application of My View ........................................................................................................................... 32 B. Summary of the Essay..................................................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 2: INTERPRETING HERACLITUS ON RELIGION ............................................................ 36 I. Three Interpretations of Heraclitus on Religion ......................................................................................... 36 II. Kahn’s View: Was Heraclitus a Religious Skeptic? ............................................................................... 38 III. Most’s View: Heraclitus as Philo of Alexandria...................................................................................... 47 iv IV. Adomenas’ View: Was Heraclitus a Religious Reformer? ................................................................... 51 V. My View ................................................................................................................................................................... 55 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................................ 58 CHAPTER 3: FROM MYTHOS TO LOGOS: GREEK RELIGION IN THE FORMATION OF HERACLITUS’ PHILOSOPHY .............................................................................................................................. 60 I. The Eleusinian Mysteries and Philosophy ................................................................................................... 60 A. A Brief Examination of the Eleusinian Mysteries .................................................................................. 61 B. The Eleusinian Influence on Philosophy: Mortality and Immortality in the work of Plato and Heraclitus..................................................................................................................................................................... 66 C. The Eleusinian Influence on Philosophy: Heraclitus ........................................................................... 76 II. Heraclitus Skoteinos and Apollo Loxias: Heraclitean and Delphic Obscurity............................. 87 A. The Delphic Oracle and the Art of Ambiguous Advice ........................................................................ 87 B. The Delphic Maxims and Early Ethics ..................................................................................................... 96 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................................ 99 CHAPTER 4: CONFLICT, LAW, & JUSTICE IN THE POLITICAL FRAGMENTS ...................... 102 I. Conflict: Polemos and Eris .............................................................................................................................. 104 II. Law (Nomos), Justice (Dike), and Hubris ............................................................................................. 107 A. Heraclitus’ Understanding of Law (Nomos) ......................................................................................... 110 B. Heraclitus’ Understanding of Justice (Dike) ......................................................................................... 123 III. Oligarchs and Democrats: Developing Political Ideologies of Heraclitus’ Time ...................... 126 A. The Meanings of “Oligarch” and “Democrat”..................................................................................... 126 B. The Difficulty of Classifying Heraclitus’ Political Views .................................................................. 129 v Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................................... 138 CHAPTER 5: HERACLITUS’ ETHICAL/POLITICAL PROJECT AND ITS ANCIENT INFLUENCE ............................................................................................................................................................... 140 I. Heraclitus’ Ethical/Political Views: A Summary ..................................................................................... 141 II. The Impact of Heraclitus’ Ethical Ideas on Later Thinkers ...........................................................
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