Cognition
φρον-: B2 | B17 | B113.μαθ-: B40 | B55 | B95 | B129 γιγν-: B5 | B17 | B28 | B57 | B86 |B97 | B108 | B116
νο-: B8 | B78 | B82 οἶδα: B23 | B57 | B80 | B104 επιστ-: B19 | B41 | B57
The Thinker, Rodin
  • In what different ways can a person know something?
  • Does learning many facts count as knowledge?
  • Why didn't Homer, Hesiod, and Pythagoras attain true knowledge?
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        Heraclitus used many different words to describe cognitive processes.  It is important to understand how he uses each word in order to understand his views of knowledge.  The links above are divided by which specific word is used.  Careful reading reveals some interesting things that help us see Heraclitus' world picture.
        The strongest sense in which a person can know something for Heraclitus is γιγνώσκω, 'to recognize.'  Because of his views about the λόγος, cosmology, and flux, the greatest knowledge is to recognize how everything changes in an orderly, rational fashion.  He criticizes Hesiod for not "recognizing day and night: they are one" (B57).  Most people experience many things through their sense, but they do not recognize the underlying structure of their sensations.
        Contrasted with γιγνώσκω are the words that come from the root μαθ-, 'learning.'  Heraclitus says that he prefers things that can be sensed or learned, but one must have a soul that understands the language of the universe (of course, one should hide a lack of learning B95).  Heraclitus criticizes Hesiod, Pythagoras, and others for having πολυμαθίη, 'much-learning,' and yet not being able to recognize how everything fits together.  For example, look at B56:
    "Men are deceived in the recognition of what is obvious, like Homer who was wisest of all the Greeks.  For he was deceived by boys killing lice who said: 'what we see and catch we leave behind; what we neither see nor catch we carry away.'
    The world gives us clues, just like a riddle.  Learning more and more clues often helps a person find the answer (that's why Heraclitus prizes these things), but clues do not mean anything unless he can figure out the answer to the riddle.  Figuratively, the λόγος is the answer to the riddle: to γιγνώσκω, 'recognize,' the answer to the riddle is the key to having knowledge of the universe.