more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 614

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / c. Ultimate substances ]

Full Idea

Heraclitus claimed that from time to time everything becomes fire.

Gist of Idea

Heraclitus said sometimes everything becomes fire

Source

report of Heraclitus (fragments/reports [c.500 BCE]) by Aristotle - Metaphysics 1067a

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.344


The 11 ideas with the same theme [proposals for one basic substance in nature]:

Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle]
Pherecydes said the first principle and element is earth [Pherecydes, by Sext.Empiricus]
For Anaximenes nature is air, which takes different forms by rarefaction and condensation [Anaximenes, by Simplicius]
Heraclitus said sometimes everything becomes fire [Heraclitus, by Aristotle]
Anaxagoras said that the number of principles was infinite [Anaxagoras, by Aristotle]
The ultimate constituents of reality are the homoeomeries [Anaxagoras, by Vlastos]
Everything is ultimately a variation of one underlying thing [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Air is divine, because it is in and around everything, and arranges everything [Diogenes of Apollonia]
There couldn't be just one element, which was both water and air at the same time [Aristotle]
In nature there is just one infinite substance [Spinoza]
Newton's four fundamentals are: space, time, matter and force [Newton, by Russell]