Thursday, January 23, 2014

Money Wisdom #248

"...for Heraclitus the fiery soul circulates through the cosmological elements, with the death of one element as the birth of another. Our two contradictions now inhere in the universal circulation of fire. This transition of the same contradictions from mystic genealogy to the universal cosmology of Heraclitus is effected by the influence of the universal circulation of money. Like Heraclitean fire and mystic soul, monetary value is a single entity that in a sense persists (albeit transformed) through all exchanges. Just as the individual is mortal and yet contains in his soul the immortal fire that persists beyond the transformation that we call his death, so money contains permanent value that persists beyond its transformation into goods."

Richard Seaford Money and the Early Greek Mind (2004) p.237