Cognition is a function of temperament. First, you seek in all directions—you need sanguinity, air. Phlegmatism, fluid, gives you perseverance, and cholericness, fire, helps you overcome resistance. Melancholy, earth, follows like an echo of knowledge. It directs your gaze into the depths and gives you humility—you recognize what you still don’t know and what new questions await you behind the answers. Maybe this is how quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg felt when he wondered at the end of his book Physics and Beyond whether the ancient Greeks—the pre-Socratic natural philosophers (physikoi)—actually knew best what atoms (atomoi) are. As a matter of fact, “Everything flows!” is Thales’s world formulation, and “Everything comes from fire!” is Heraclitus’ credo. A hundred years ago, the physicist Ernest Rutherford bombarded gold foil with helium particles and showed that in the classical atomic model, matter consists mainly of empty space. Albert Einstein’s formula E = mc2 says: mass is energy—everything is fire! Sixty years ago, a model was developed that was based on what Democritus called the indivisible: the quarks. Three of these basic building blocks form a proton, and surprisingly, according to calculation, they make up only 0.2 percent of the mass of the proton—the remaining 99.8 percent is bonding energy. Here, Thales might nod and say, “Everything is water!” because water connects—water is relationship.
Translation Laura Liska
Graphics Nina Gautier, 2025
