How did Heraclitus’s idea of constant change support skeptical thinking?

Heraclitus’s philosophy of constant change supported skeptical thinking by challenging the possibility of discovering permanent, unchangeable truths about the world. While Heraclitus himself posited a coherent system governed by the logos, his emphasis on the world being in a state of constant flux—famously illustrated by his analogy of a river where "different and ever different waters flow down"—led thinkers like his pupil Cratylus to conclude that because reality is always changing, no stable knowledge of it can be attained.12

This perspective contributed to the development of ancient skepticism by highlighting the difficulty of grounding knowledge in a world where the objects of experience are never static. By suggesting that the world is in such a state of flux that no permanent truth can be found, this line of reasoning helped foster the broader skeptical tradition, which questioned the human capacity to distinguish true from false knowledge and ultimately advocated for the suspension of judgment regarding the nature of reality.2