Tensions from the Start: Tales of the First Hydrologist and His Civilization

Western philosophy and science trace their roots to the earliest Greek thinkers documented in history. These thinkers precede much of the surviving written record from the time, a time marked by Plato’s writings about Socrates. Thus, as a group, they are often called the “pre-Socratics.” Among the pre-Socratics, modern hydrologists have developed a particular affinity for Heraclitus, who lived around 500 BCE. One of his Fragments includes the phrase “Panta Rhei” or “Everything Flows,” familiar to all hydrologists and philosophers. The International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) is so fond of Heraclitus that they have named a decade-long scientific effort focused on “Change in Hydrology and Society” after this phrase: The Panta Rhei Scientific Decade (2013–2022). This Heraclitan fragment (derived from multiple sources, fragments #21, 49, and 91) has been translated by various scholars in various ways, all resulting in a paradoxical tone. Given this tone, one may not be surprised to hear that Heraclitus was often called, “The Dark One.” He did not appear to favor the systematic use of empirical results to form reductionist theories that will, “tell us how the world is; he wants to show us. He creates little riddles and lets us figure them out for ourselves. If we want ready-made answers, we will find nothing,” according to Heraclitus scholar, Daniel W. Graham. As Friedrich Nietzsche, a professor of philology with a deep study of Greek, phrased it, “towards reason, Heraclitus shows himself cool, apathetic, even hostile, and he seems to derive a pleasure when he is able to contradict reason by means of a truth gained intuitively”. This characterization echoes the sentiments found in the surviving fragments that have been attributed to Heraclitus. For instance, one introduction to these fragments by scholar Philip Wheelwright states that Heraclitus “relied to a far lesser degree” on what we perceive now as “fundamental modes of distinguishing concepts,” such as “our logical distinction between the concrete and the abstract”. Nietzsche also noted that Aristotle went as far as to “accuse [Heraclitus] of the highest crime, of having sinned against the law of opposition [reason]”. Heraclitus was seemingly more focused on the impossibility of capturing nature’s perpetual flux within the confines of consistent physical laws, a viewpoint that stands somewhat at odds with the “practical aims” of the IAHS Panta Rhei Decade. Additionally, the available evidence suggests that he had scant interest in water as an object of (proto)scientific study. Heraclitus believed that all things were composed or derived of fire, not water. In fact, the statement that includes his Panta Rhei mantra appears to be more a criticism of the kinds of practical aims espoused by modern hydrology (and related sciences), utilizing water more as a metaphor. Indeed, we may read Heraclitus as issuing a warning not to confuse our pragmatic practice of naming, defining, and quantifying the world with understanding it. Heraclitus’ skepticism may be directed toward his predecessors and contemporaries. One such contemporary was Thales of Miletus, often called the first philosopher and scientist. Thales was deeply concerned with gathering and organizing empirical observations to build a theory about the world through water. He was not only the first Western philosopher and scientist but also the first hydrologist.