Is there any work of Heraclitus (Ephesus) beyond the aphorisms? and what is the relationship between his philosophy and that of Nietzsche?
Sorry about my english.
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Sign up to join this communityIs there any work of Heraclitus (Ephesus) beyond the aphorisms? and what is the relationship between his philosophy and that of Nietzsche?
Sorry about my english.
For Heraclitus there are only the fragments collected in The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts, 2nd Edition by G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, M. Schofield, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1983 (and frequently reprinted). Or in German : Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (Berlin, 1903, 6th ed., rev. by Walther Kranz (Berlin: Weidmann, 1952.
Nietzsche's relation to Heraclitus is a matter of record.
[T]he kinship between Nietzsche and Heraclitus is widely acknowledged (Heidegger, in his Nietzsche, is the exception here) and frequently confirmed by Nietzsche himself. Among the most famous declaration of that brotherhood comes from Ecce Homo, where he writes about Heraclitus "in whose proximity I feel altogether warmer and better than anywhere else. The affirmation of passing away and destroying, which is the decisive feature of a Dionysian philosophy; saying Yes to opposition and war; becoming, along with a radical repudiation of the very concept of being?all this is clearly more closely related to me than anything else thought to date" (EH GT 3). Further, he writes that the Zaratustrian doctrine of eternal recurrence could have also been taught by Heraclitus. The kinship between Heraclitus and Nietzsche consists in the problem they confront. Their kinship could be called thematic, but despite Nietzsche's declaration, this is not the kinship of the way of thinking. If two philosophers deal with the same problem, it is not obvious that they think similarly. In such a case the similarity could be only superficial, covering a deeper level of divergence. (Artur Przybyslawski, 'Nietzsche Contra Heraclitus', Journal of Nietzsche Studies, No. 23 (Spring 2002), p.88.)
Przybyslawski's claim is that at least part of the convergence between Nietzsche and Heraclitus is due to Nietzsche's interpretation rather than to deep philosophical agreement. Whatever the case, Nietzsche held views about Heraclitus and highly favourable ones.