A few minutes of key ideas!
The research & wisdom reminders.
These are the six key ideas that guided the high-level topics of this week’s column.
This week:
Flux.
Flux is impermanence. To understand it, think about change.
1.
Heraclitus
born circa 535 BCE
circa 535 to 475 BCE, likely aged about 60 years old
Heraclitus taught that reality exists in constant flux, held together by the tension of opposing forces—an insight that echoes Eastern impermanence and the balance of yin–yang.
2.
“Everything is in flux.”
- Heraclitus
- 500 BCE
Change is the only form of permanence that exists—first glimpsed by ancient thinkers, and now woven into the fabric of modern science.
3.
Will the night sky have stars nearly forever?
Every star you see at night belongs to the Milky Way — some can see a few of the closest galaxies. All gravitationally bound and unaffected by cosmic expansion. For centuries, humans assumed the night sky was eternal and unchanging. Modern cosmology reveals a subtler truth: while the universe expands, gravity preserves the stars.
4.
What does existence before essence mean?
Existence before essence means you arrive without a script, and your identity emerges through a life in motion: shaped by change, choice, and time.
5.
Is cause and effect certain?
With the motion of life, cause and effect feel certain. We see stable patterns. But Hume challenged this confidence, reminding us that correlation does not guarantee causation.
6.
Who were the Presocratic Philosophers?
Language itself is in flux. The Presocratic thinkers lived before philosopher was an identity, in a Greek world where sophist still meant “wise,” not yet the later deceiver.
That’s it. The end.