HERACLITUS OF EPHESUS (Greek, c. 535-475 BCE)
Like Thales of Miletus, Heraclitus of Ephesus was a pre-Socratic thinker from Asia Minor; his city of birth was at the time part of the Persian Empire. His cryptic style and paradoxical approach earned him the nickname "The Obscure." Only fragments of his work On Nature have survived, as quoted in the works of other authors. Unlike Thales, who believed the world's essence was water, Heraclitus thought it was fire. He was most famous for teaching that the world was constantly "in flux" or "becoming." As a famous saying puts it, "No man ever steps in the same river twice." He also said, "Everything flows." A rival, Parmenides, on the other hand, believed in a static, unchanging universe.
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