I’m new to Ancient Greeks and Ancient Greek philosophy, because the way I was raised, these guys were basically heretics / heathens / people who shoulda known better. So forgive me if this is old news…

…but so far, the life of Heraclitus seems like such an INTJ flex:

• Spoke in metaphor, “reasoned” in metaphor, died and left us with metaphor
• Argued with his doctors.
• Grumpy af
• Critical
• Harbored a comparatively shallow notion of the “best man” (in e.g. a group of men)
• Intellectual yet not terribly open to outside ideas
• Accused by others of not reasoning (Ti) and contradicting himself (this is like the classic INTP “that’s not logical” feedback on INTJ stuff. Blog-kun included)
• Saw life as dynamic and changing vs. static (this tends to be a huuuuge INTJ differentiator in the psychology of philosophy)
• Philosophy was heavily development-oriented as a result
• Seemed to struggle to maintain a positive mood
• Fell back on single words as weighty meta-signifiers
  • Philosophy of Simplification-convergence
  • Branching into specifics from the “big picture” word / signifier, rather than vice-versa
• Seemed to believe in a single shared truth? (Logos is common) Uh oh, covert contract trouble was in this guy’s life for real
• Could have picked any element, picked fire because of his burning heart (I made up that last part)
• Generally favorable toward conflict and war
• Believed in and focused on the unity of opposites (but not the transcendence of opposites, at least not that I’ve been able to see)
  • The oppositional state is strife; stability is justice
• Seemed to think in projected outcomes; here’s what would happen if you do that
• There was no real structure behind his becoming a philosopher, just kinda was one.

IDK. I still have a lot to learn about Heraclitus. But from the moment I stared reading, I was like, oh no…no…no no no no no. Not that I’m complaining—he deserves his share of reverence and gratitude. It’s just that one begins to see his life unfolding, hoping against hope that he didn’t drive his doctors up the wall, thinking he knew everything…little things like that.

Filed in: People /74/