Episode 13: The Obscure: On the Philosophy of Heraclitus

Heraclitus of Ephesus was one of the great pre-Socratic thinkers. Called the Obscure and the Weeping Philosopher, he left behind a collection of fragments so mysterious and pregnant with meaning that they continue to puzzle scholars to this day. In this episode, Phil and JF use a random number generator to select a number of fragments and speculate about their content. By the end, they will also have disclosed the bizarre contents of JF's tenth-grade "hippie bag," outed Oscar Wilde as a Zen Buddhist, and taken a walking tour of a city that exists only in Phil's dreams. REFERENCES Pierre Hadot, What is Ancient Philosophy? Northrop Frye, The Great Code Northrop Frye, Words with Power I Ching: The Book of Changes Oxford World Classics, The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists Wikisource page for Heraclitus James Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld Dogen Zenji, Genjokoan Mark Johnson, The Meaning of the Body Gilles Deleuze on Spinoza Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols Neil Gaiman, Seasons of Mist (the fourth arc of the Sandman series) Deleuze on Dreams