What does Panta rei mean, aphorism of continuous becoming, everything flows in the mind of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, a complex but in reality very profound thought.
Panta rei aphorism
Panta Rei, a Greek expression that can literally be translated into everything flows, expresses synthetically the thought of Heraclitus, an important Greek philosopher who lived around 500 BC.
Referring to the continuous change of reality, Heraclitus wrote the following aphorism:
"You cannot descend twice in the same river and you cannot touch a mortal substance in the same state twice, but because of the impetuosity and the speed of change it disperses and collects, comes and goes".
Making a significant comparison with the river, the concept expressed by Heraclitus means that everything changes and everything is transformed, for this reason nothing remains unchanged.
Indeed the river, even if apparently it seems to remain perfectly the same, is constantly transformed because it is renewed thanks to the continuous flow of its waters, for this reason it is not possible to immerse yourself in it more than once, since the second time would no longer be same river as before.
So it is impossible for every human being to repeat an identical experience twice, since everything, in the way it appears to us, is subject to constant change.
The concept of "everything passes" is frequently assimilated to the expression panta rei, meaning that problems, obstacles and suffering can be overcome, because they are subject to transformations due to the passage of time.
But the true meaning of this famous Greek aphorism is much deeper as it is based on the philosophical concept of becoming.
Heraclitus' panta rei exalts the sense of matter and the cosmos which sees the elevation of becoming into arches, which represents the entity that governs the world, claiming that without change, nothing could have an existence, since becoming itself is the essence of the cosmos, around which the daily lives of each of us revolve.
In light of all these considerations, Heraclitus is considered the philosopher of becoming, as opposed to Parmenides, known instead as a philosopher of being.
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The oracular style and the fragmented work make Heraclitus's philosophy rather complex, to the point that even Aristotle used to call him an obscure philosopher.
