Justice and Strife
B8 | B23 | B51 | B53 | B67 | B80 | B94 | B102

Soldiers in battle 
  • How might the bow exemplify both war and peace?
  • Why does there appear to be injustice?
  • Would the universe be better if there were no strife?
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        In Heraclitus, 'justice' is more than an abstract notion.  Heraclitus personifies Justice as an active agent in the universe.  The role that Justice plays in Heraclitus' world view is best understood by comparing it with the views of Anaximander, one of his predecessors.
        Anaximander believed that the world contained opposites.  For Anaximander, these opposites would war against each other.  Sometimes, one would prevail -- other times, its opposite would prevail.  He says, "[The opposites] give justice and reparation to one another for their injustices in accordance with the arragement of time" (DK12 B1, Barnes).  When one thing caused strife with its opposite, it committed injustice.  The opposite, after losing ground, would attack back and subdue the other.  A clear example of this is summer and winter.  In the winter, the cold overcomes the hot and reigns.  But in time, the hot repays the cold for its injustice and reigns over it.  Warring between the opposites is injustice, and justice always prevails to keep the one from completely dominating the other, though each will dominate for a time.  In Anaximander, the opposites take "justice into their own hands" and attack the other.
        On Heraclitus' view, though, the strife between opposites is justice.  When the two opposites war, they are acting justly.  The apparent peaceful state of rest is impossible without the warring of opposites.  He uses the bow as an example (B51): perhaps the opposite ends of the bow try to pull apart, but the bow could not work without that strife.  Justice keeps both opposites from overstepping their bounds.  All things have this war of the opposites going on inside of them -- they depend on this strife for their existence.
        Two ancient sources (see below) tell us that Heraclitus criticized Homer for having Achilles say, "I wish that strife would vanish away from among gods and mortals" (Iliad 18.107); if strife were to be abolised, then nothing could come into existence.  Heraclitus also criticizes men for thinking that there is injustice in the world; from a God's-eye view, there is only Justice that keeps everything in its proper place (B102).
    Aristotle writes (Eudemian Ethics 1235a25), "Heraclitus rebukes the poet who wrote, 'Would strife might perish out of heaven and earth,' for, he says, there would be no harmony without high and low notes, and no animals without male and female, which are opposites."
    Scholia to Iliad 18.107 writes this: "Heraclitus, who believes that the nature of things was constructed according to strife, finds fault with Homer, on the grounds that he is praying for the destruction of the cosmos" (Kahn 204).