Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher, known for his doctrine of change being central to the universe, Heraclitus was known to his contemporaries as the ‘dark’ philosopher, so- called because his writings were so difficult to understand. Seeming to hold the common understanding of the nature of life and the purpose of human life in contempt (as, in fact, he seems to have regarded most of the human beings he came in contact with), Heraclitus compared most people's understanding to that of those asleep. To Heraclitus, only the philosopher, the one who pursued Truth, was fully awake and fully alive, and he seemed to consider himself the only philosopher of his time. Theory of Flux. His central claim is summed up in the phrase Panta Rhei (‘life is flux") recognizing the essential, underlying essence of life as change. Nothing in life is permanent, nor can it be, because the very nature of existence is change. Change is not just a part of life in Heraclitus’ view, it is life itself. All things, he claimed, are brought into and pass out of existence through a clash of opposites which continually create and destroy. He is said to have severely criticized those who lamented strife and war because both, he claimed, were instrumental in transformation. ‘We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not’ One interpretation of this passage is that Heraclitus is saying we can't step into the same river twice. This is because theriver is constantly changing. If | stroll down the banks of the Danube, the water before my eyes is not the same water from moment to moment. If the river is this water (which is a debatable point - the river could be its banks, the scar it carves in the landscape, but let’s leave this aside), it follows that the Danube is not the same river from moment to moment. We step into the Danube; we step out of it again. When we step into it a second time, we step into different water and thus a different river. Logos. The logos which people are oblivious to is to be found in the natures of things, properly distinguished from one another and defined. People experience things, but generally do not seem to go beyond this to something which holds forever, the logos, the “ratio,” the whatness of things. Theory Fire. Fire plays a central role in Heraclitus. He calls the entire cosmos "an ever-living fire" . Fire is his first principle; all things are exchanged for fire and fire for all things Fire changes into various other elements in a cosmic cycle, although the details of this cycle are unclear.