Lutra 54(1)_Meerburg_Editorial_2011

Panta rhei

Panta rhei is the ancient Greek expression for ‘everything flows.’ It is a valuable aphorism for all aspects of life. The famous Greek philosopher Heraclitus (who lived around 600 B.C.) is said to have remarked: “Only change itself is a real, constant and eternal flux, like the continuous flow of the river which always renews itself.” He argued that people never cross the same river twice, as both the river and the person are constantly changing. Heraclitus was one of the first Greek philosophers who made the transition from natural philosophy (defined by Wikipedia as ‘the analysis and synthesis of common experience and argumentation to explain or describe nature’) to a more empirical way of thinking. In this respect he may be considered as one of the founding fathers of modern natural sciences, including biology, physics and chemistry. In nature, panta rhei can be used to characterise the cycle of plants and animals; that are born, grow older and eventually die but will be superseded by....