- Parménide et Héraclite, deux 'phusikoi' atypiques

Abstract

Abstract

According to Aristotle, all the so-called "pre-Socratic" philosophers were concerned with phúsis: they were phusikoí or phusilogoí, from Thales to Democritus. Since Aristotle idetifies the notion of phúsis with that of "element", he has no hesitation in including Heraclitus and Parmenides in this group, since, according to him, Heraclitus would have proposed fire as phúsis, and Parmenides hot and cold. However, we need only look at the preserved quotations from Heraclitus to see that fire does not play a principled role in Heraclitus, and, in the case of Parmenides, that the notions of hot and cold are not proposed as his by the Eleate, but by "men who know nothing". However, both Heraclitus and Parmenides were concerned with phúsis, but for them this notion is synonymous with "being", far removed from its Aristotelian meaning.