Nietzsche and Heraclitus Who Laughs: Loneliness, Tragic Joy and Becoming Innnnocent

Abstract

We are discussing the interpretation of Nietzsche about Heraclitus as the most Greek and anti-Platonic of the pre-Platonic philosophers, from the statement of opposites in the agonic game of becoming. Representative of an attitude originally Hellenistic, Heraclitus is interpreted as a true philosopher, as he intuitively captured the flow of becoming as a process of internalization of knowledge, translated by an investigation of himself. Accordingly, the Nietzschean interpretation goes against the tradition that had described Heraclitus as tearful and dark and re-invents the character as the solitude, tragic joy and innocence of becoming, items for which Nietzsche ordering the metaphors of the game, the artist and child.