„Herrschaft und Knechtschaft“: Determinismus-Paradigmata bei Heraklit als Begründung und Erklärung der Welt

This paper attempts to demonstrate how the ‘deterministic’ paradigms (often expressed through famous metaphors) found in Heraclitus’ corpus of testimonies and fragments can be seen as forms of justification and explanation of the (physical and human) world. The analysis focuses first of all on the doxographical pieces of evidence available to us. Some confirm that a clear notion of Fate and Necessity can be ascribed to Heraclitus. The extant fragments, however, reveal that it is not possible to work out a univocal understanding of ‘determinism’ from the close relationship of Fate and Necessity. This issue is further explored via five case studies: Ekpyrosis (viz. the cosmic conflagration), Dike, Nomos, Moira, and Daimon. In the end, this investigation demonstrates that according to Heraclitus, the concepts of Fate and Necessity never justify suppressing human will: they seem to establish an embryonic ‘philosophy of freedom’ in the history of Greek thought, rather than a ‘deterministic’ doctrine.