The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: An Edition of the Fragments
with Translation and Commentary by Charles H. Kahn Cambridge
University Press, 354 pp., $15.95 (paper) We are, let us
imagine, at Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor. The date is
somewhere around 500 BC, and we have gathered to hear the book
or logos (discourse) of Heraclitus, son of Bloson. At this
period books—such few of them as exist—are written to be heard
rather than perused in solitude, and it is customary for them to
begin, self-referentially, with an introductory remark about the
logos which is to be read out. So we are not surprised when on
this occasion the opening words speak of Heraclitus’ logos and
of those who hear it. The jolt comes when we realize that we,
the hearers of this logos, are being told that we will not
understand it: Although this logos is so always men fail to
comprehend, both before hearing it and once they have heard.
There is one reassurance here. If at first we were at a loss to
know whether to take the word “alway