Is the Logos a Kind of World Soul? On the Relationship between Cosmology and Psychology in Heraclitus

The paper tackles the problem of Heraclitus’ concept of the soul and its relationship with cosmology. It argues that the Logos of Heraclitus cannot be identified with the World Soul as described by the following Platonic and Neoplatonic traditions. Nevertheless, Heraclitus’ World Soul is not only different from the individual souls of human beings, but it also acts chiefly as an intermediary force between the cosmos and the Logos, viz. between physical phenomena and the law of the coincidence of opposites according to which they occur. In this way, the World Soul becomes the only key for translating the language of the Logos and for understanding the unity of the whole. Therefore, the identification of psychology and cosmology in Heraclitus has above all an epistemological function, because it is the only way to reach the ‘truth’ while remaining in the confines of human ‘logic.’ An appendix provides an edition with a commentary of an important Herculanean testimonium concerning the reception of the Heraclitean World Soul concept in the Stoic tradition.