Editing Heraclitus (section)

==== You cannot step into the same river twice ====
[[File:Kızılırmak River from Kapıkaya Köyü.jpg|thumb|The [[Halys River]], Turkey's longest. Heraclitus's theory of flux has been associated with the metaphor of a flowing river.]]
Since Plato, Heraclitus's theory of flux has been associated with the metaphor of a flowing river, which cannot be stepped into twice.{{sfn|Graham|2019|loc=§3.1}}{{efn|name=plato1|{{harvnb| A6}}}} This fragment from Heraclitus's writings has survived in three different forms:{{sfn|Barnes|1982|p=49}}
* "On those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow" – [[Arius Didymus]], quoted in [[Stobaeus]]{{Efn|{{harvnb| B12}}}}
* "We both step and do not step into the same river, we both are and are not" – [[Heraclitus (commentator)|Heraclitus Homericus]], ''Homeric Allegories''{{Efn|{{harvnb| B49a}}}}
* "It is not possible to step into the same river twice" – [[Plutarch]], ''On the E at Delphi''{{Efn|{{harvnb|Plutarch, On the E at Delphi|loc= B91}}}}

The classicist [[Karl Reinhardt (philologist)|Karl Reinhardt]] identified the first river quote as the genuine one.{{sfn|Graham|2019|loc=§3}}  The river fragments (especially the second "we both are and are not") seem to suggest not only is the river constantly changing, but we do as well, perhaps commenting on [[Existentialism|existential]] questions about humanity and personhood.{{sfn|Warren|2014|pp=72–74}}

Scholars such as Reinhardt also interpreted the metaphor as illustrating what is stable, rather than the usual interpretation of illustrating change.<ref>Parmenides, 206–207</ref> Classicist {{Ill|Karl-Martin Dietz|de}} has said: "You will not find anything, in which the river remains constant&nbsp;... Just the fact, that there is a particular river bed, that there is a source and an estuary etc. is something, that stays identical. And this is&nbsp;... the concept of a river."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Heraklit von Ephesus und die Entwicklung der Individualität|last=Dietz|first=Karl-Martin|publisher=Verlag Freies Geistesleben|year=2004|isbn=978-3772512735|location=Stuttgart|pages=60}}</ref> According to American philosopher [[Willard Van Orman Quine|W. V. O. Quine]], the river parable illustrates that the river is a process through time. One cannot step twice into the same river-stage.<ref>Quine, W. V. (1950). ''Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis. The Journal of Philosophy, 47(22), 621.'' {{doi|10.2307/2021795}}</ref>

Professor [[M. M. McCabe]] has argued that the three statements on rivers should all be read as fragments from a discourse. McCabe suggests reading them as though they arose in succession. The three fragments "could be retained, and arranged in an argumentative sequence".{{sfn|McCabe|2015}} In McCabe's reading of the fragments, Heraclitus can be read as a philosopher capable of sustained [[argument]], rather than just [[aphorism]].{{sfn|McCabe|2015}}