Abstract

The article aims to highlight and to spur new discussion on the matter of individual identity in Heraclitus’ thought. The presence of such doctrine is identified in 22 B 101 DK, 22 B 45 DK and 22 B 50 DK and their notably philosophical lexicon. Heraclitus’ interest in the problem of individual identity appears to rise in 22 B 101 DK, where the philosopher asserts to have “researched himselfµ. The traditional analogy of the fragment with the Delphic motto is explained to be only apparent and apocryphally devised by later doxographers. While ψυχή is recognised as the philosophical term to indicate the unity of sensitive and cognitive faculties in Heraclitus, thus replacing the inadequate “selfµ in indicating individual identity, in 22 B 45 DK the πείρατα of the ψυχή are said to be unattainable due to the λόγος of the ψυχή being βαθύς. It is proposed that the defining characteristics (this would be the metaphorical meaning of πείρατα, whose accurate translation is still to be debated) of the ψυχή are inexpressible as it is inherent to the law-λόγος of the ψυχή that they are ever-changing and copious (βαθύς). Such law-λόγος of the ψυχή is acknowledged to be strictly coherent with the cosmic Λόγος (in 22 B 50 DK), so that Heraclitus himself advices not to listen to him, since he does not, ontologically, subsist as an identical individual, but to the universal Law, thus denying humankind’s privileged status among the beings of the cosmos