SOURCE: Edward Hussey, "Epistemology and Meaning in Heraclitus," in Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy Presented to G E. L. Owen, edited by Malcolm Schofield and Martha Craven Nussbaum, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 33-59.

In the following excerpt, Hussey examines several rules for the interpretation of sense-experience which he contends Heraclitus followed. The editors have included only those footnotes which pertain to the excerpt.

1. Epistemology: the programme

1.1 The hypothesis to be explored claims that at the heart of Heraclitus' thought there lies a remarkable and characteristic epistemology, and that it is this above all that must first be grasped if his account of the world is to be understood. It will help to begin with a statement of what would be agreed about Heraclitus' epistemology by many scholars.

I shall treat as non-controversial the position summarised in the rest of the present paragraph. Heraclitus is deeply...