Logos

1. Logos

Logos (λόγος; from λέγω, Lego, lit. ''I say'') is a term in Western philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, and religion derived from a Greek word variously meaning ground, plea, opinion, expectation, word, speech, account, reason, proportion, and discourse.

Logos became a technical term in Western philosophy beginning with Heraclitus (c.  535 – c.  475 BC), who used the term for a principle of order and knowledge.

Ancient Greek philosophers used the term in different ways:

The Sophists used the term to mean discourse.

Aristotle applied the term to refer to reasoned discourse or the argument in the field of rhetoric, and considered it one of the 3 modes of persuasion alongside Ethos and Pathos.

Pyrrhonist philosophers used the term to refer to dogmatic accounts of non-evident matters.

The Stoics spoke of the Logos spermatikos (the generative principle of the Universe) which foreshadows related concepts in Neo-Platonism.

Within Hellenistic Judaism, Philo (c.  20 BC – c.  50 AD) adopted the term into Jewish philosophy:

Philo distinguished between Logos prophorikos (the uttered word) and the Logos endiathetos (the word remaining within).

The Gospel of John identifies the Christian Logos, through which all things are made, as Divine (Theos), and further identifies Jesus Christ as the incarnate Logos.

Early translators of the Greek New Testament such as Jerome (in the 4^th century AD) were frustrated by the inadequacy of any single Latin word to convey the meaning of the word Logos as used to describe Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John.

The Vulgate Bible usage of in principio erat verbum was thus constrained to use the (perhaps inadequate) noun verbum for word, but later Romance language translations had the advantage of nouns such as le Verbe in French.

Reformation translators took another approach:

Martin Luther rejected Zeitwort (verb) in favour of Wort (word), for instance, although later commentators repeatedly turned to a more dynamic use involving the living word as felt by Jerome and Augustine.

The term is also used in Sufism, and the analytical psychology of Carl Jung.

Despite the conventional translation as Word, Logos is not used for a word in the grammatical sense—for that, the term lexis (λέξις) was used.

However, both Logos and lexis derive from the same verb légō (λέγω), meaning (I) count, tell, say, speak.

Ancient Greek philosophy

2. Heraclitus

The writing of Heraclitus (c. 535 – c. 475 BC) was the first place where the word Logos was given special attention in ancient Greek philosophy,

although Heraclitus seems to use the word with a meaning not significantly different from the way in which it was used in ordinary Greek of his time.

For Heraclitus, Logos provided the link between rational discourse and the world's rational structure:

What Logos means here is not certain; it may mean reason or explanation in the sense of an objective cosmic law, or it may signify nothing more than saying or wisdom.

Yet, an independent existence of a Universal Logos was clearly suggested by Heraclitus.

3. Aristotle Logos

Following one of the other meanings of the word, Aristotle gave Logos a different technical definition in the Rhetoric, using it as meaning argument from Reason, one of the 3 modes of persuasion.

The other 2 modes are Pathos (πᾰ́θος), which refers to persuasion by means of emotional appeal, putting the hearer into a certain frame of mind; and Ethos (ἦθος), persuasion through convincing listeners of one's moral character.

According to Aristotle, Logos relates to the speech itself, in so far as it proves or seems to prove.

For Aristotle, Logos is something more refined than the capacity to make private feelings public: it enables the human being to perform as no other animal can;

it makes it possible for him to perceive and make clear to others through reasoned discourse the difference between what is advantageous and what is harmful, between what is just and what is unjust, and between what is good and what is evil.

Logos, Pathos, and Ethos can all be appropriate at different times.

Arguments from Reason (logical arguments) have some advantages, namely that data are (ostensibly) difficult to manipulate,

so it is harder to argue against such an argument; and such arguments make the speaker look prepared and knowledgeable to the audience, enhancing Ethos.

On the other hand, trust in the speaker—built through Ethos—enhances the appeal of arguments from Reason.

Aristotle comments on the 3 modes by stating:

4. Pyrrhonists

The Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus defined the Pyrrhonist usage of Logos as

When we say To every Logos an equal Logos is opposed, by every Logos we mean every Logos that has been considered by us,

and we use Logos not in its ordinary sense but for that which establishes something dogmatically, that is to say, concerning the non-evident, and which establishes it in any way at all, not necessarily by means of premises and conclusion.

5. Stoics

Stoic philosophy began with Zeno of Citium c. 300 BC, in which the Logos was the Active Reason pervading and animating the Universe.

It was conceived as material and is usually identified with God or Nature.

The Stoics also referred to the Seminal Logos (Logos spermatikos), or the law of generation in the Universe, which was the principle of the Active Reason working in inanimate matter.

Humans, too, each possess a portion of the Divine Logos.

The Stoics took all activity to imply a Logos or spiritual principle.

As the operative principle of the world, the Logos was Anima Mundi to them, a concept which later influenced Philo of Alexandria, although he derived the contents of the term from Plato.

Logos had long been one of the important terms of Stoicism, chosen originally for the purpose of explaining how Deity came into relation with the universe.

6. Isocrates' Logos

Public discourse on ancient Greek rhetoric has historically emphasized Aristotle's appeals to Logos, Pathos, and Ethos,

while less attention has been directed to Isocrates' teachings about Philosophy and Logos, and their partnership in generating an ethical, mindful Polis.

Isocrates does not provide a single definition of Logos in his work, but Isocratic Logos characteristically focuses on speech, reason, and civic discourse.

He was concerned with establishing the common good of Athenian citizens, which he believed could be achieved through the pursuit of Philosophy and the application of Logos.

In Hellenistic Judaism

7. Philo of Alexandria

Philo (c. 20 BC – c. 50 AD), a Hellenized Jew, used the term Logos to mean an intermediary Divine Being or Demiurge.

Philo followed the Platonic distinction between imperfect matter and perfect Form,

and therefore Intermediary Beings were necessary to bridge the enormous gap between God and the Material World.

The Logos was the highest of these Intermediary Beings, and was called by Philo the first-born of God.

Philo also wrote:

Plato's Theory of Forms was located within the Logos, but the Logos also acted on behalf of God in the physical world.

In particular, the Angel of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was identified with the Logos by Philo, who also said that the Logos was God's instrument in the creation of the Universe.

8. Targums

The concept of Logos also appears in the Targums (Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible dating to the first centuries AD),

where the term memra (Aramaic for word) is often used instead of 'the Lord', especially when referring to a manifestation of God that could be construed as anthropomorphic.

9. Christianity

In Christology, the Logos (Λόγος, lit. 'word, discourse, or reason') is a name or title of Jesus Christ, seen as the pre-existent second person of the Trinity.

The concept derives from John 1:1, which in most classical versions of the Bible, reads:

10. Neo-Platonism

Neo-Platonist philosophers such as Plotinus (c. 204/5 – 270 AD) used Logos in ways that drew on Plato and the Stoics,

but the term Logos was interpreted in different ways throughout Neo-Platonism, and similarities to Philo's concept of Logos appear to be accidental.

The Logos was a key element in the Meditations of Plotinus regarded as the first Neo-Platonist.

Plotinus referred back to Heraclitus and as far back as Thales in interpreting Logos as the principle of meditation, existing as the interrelationship between the hypostases—the soul, the intellect (nous), and the One.

Plotinus used a trinity concept that consisted of The One, the Spirit, and Soul.

The comparison with the Christian Trinity is inescapable, but for Plotinus these were not equal and The One was at the highest level, with the Soul at the lowest.

For Plotinus, the relationship between the 3 elements of his trinity is conducted by the outpouring of Logos from the higher principle, and Eros (loving) upward from the lower principle.

Plotinus relied heavily on the concept of Logos, but no explicit references to Christian thought can be found in his works, although there are significant traces of them in his doctrine.

Plotinus specifically avoided using the term Logos to refer to the 2^nd person of his trinity.

However, Plotinus influenced Gaius Marius Victorinus, who then influenced Augustine of Hippo. Centuries later, Carl Jung acknowledged the influence of Plotinus in his writings.

Victorinus differentiated between the Logos interior to God and the Logos related to the world by creation and salvation.

Augustine of Hippo, often seen as the father of medieval philosophy, was also greatly influenced by Plato and is famous for his re-interpretation of Aristotle and Plato in the light of early Christian thought.

A young Augustine experimented with, but failed to achieve ecstasy using the meditations of Plotinus.

In his Confessions, Augustine described Logos as the Divine Eternal Word, by which he, in part, was able to motivate the early Christian thought.

Augustine's Logos had taken body in Christ, the man in whom the Logos (i.e. the truth or Reason) was present as in no other man.

11. Islam

The concept of the Logos also exists in Islam, where it was definitively articulated primarily in the writings of the classical Sunni mystics and Islamic philosophers, as well as by certain Shi'a thinkers, during the Islamic Golden Age.

In Sunni Islam, the concept of the Logos has been given many different names by the denomination's metaphysicians, mystics, and philosophers,

including Aql (Intellect), al-insān al-kāmil (Universal Man), kalimat Allāh (Word of God), haqīqa muḥammadiyya (The Muhammadin Reality), and nūr muḥammadī (The Muhammadan Light).

12. Aql

One of the names given to a concept very much like the Christian Logos by the classical Muslim metaphysicians is Aql, which is the Arabic equivalent to the Greek νοῦς (intellect).

In the writings of the Islamic Neo-Platonist philosophers, such as al-Farabi (c. 872 – c. 950 AD) and Avicenna (d. 1037),

the idea of the Aql was presented in a manner that both resembled the late Greek doctrine and, likewise, corresponded in many respects to the Logos Christology.

The concept of Logos in Sufism is used to relate the Uncreated (God) to the Created (humanity). In Sufism, for the Deist, no contact between man and God can be possible without the Logos.

The Logos is everywhere and always the same, but its personification is unique within each region.

Jesus and Muhammad are seen as the personifications of the Logos, and this is what enables them to speak in such absolute terms.

One of the boldest and most radical attempts to reformulate the Neo-Platonic concepts into Sufism arose with the philosopher Ibn Arabi, who travelled widely in Spain and North Africa:

His concepts were expressed in 2 major works The Ringstones of Wisdom (Fusus al-Hikam) and The Meccan Illuminations (Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya).

To Ibn Arabi, every Prophet corresponds to a reality which he called a Logos (Kalimah), as an aspect of the unique Divine Being.

In his view the Divine Being would have forever remained hidden, had it not been for the Prophets, with Logos providing the link between man and divinity.

Ibn Arabi seems to have adopted his version of the Logos concept from Neo-Platonic and Christian sources, although (writing in Arabic rather than Greek) he used more than 20 different terms when discussing it.

For Ibn Arabi, the Logos or Universal Man was a mediating link between individual human beings and the divine essence.

Other Sufi writers also show the influence of the Neo-Platonic Logos:

In the 15^th century Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī introduced the Doctrine of Logos and the Perfect Man:

For al-Jīlī, the Perfect Man (associated with the Logos or the Prophet) has the power to assume different forms at different times and to appear in different guises.

13. Jung's analytical psychology

Carl Jung contrasted the critical and rational faculties of Logos with the emotional, non-reason oriented and mythical elements of Eros.

In Jung's approach, Logos vs Eros can be represented as science vs mysticism, or reason vs imagination or conscious activity vs the unconscious.

For Jung, Logos represented the masculine principle of rationality, in contrast to its feminine counterpart, Eros:

Woman's psychology is founded on the principle of Eros, the great binder and loosener, whereas from ancient times the ruling principle ascribed to man is Logos.

The concept of Eros could be expressed in modern terms as psychic relatedness, and that of Logos as objective interest.

Jung attempted to equate Logos and Eros, his intuitive conceptions of masculine and feminine consciousness, with the alchemical Sol and Luna.

Jung commented that in a man the lunar anima and in a woman the solar animus has the greatest influence on consciousness.

Jung often proceeded to analyse situations in terms of paired opposites, e.g. by using the analogy with the eastern yin and yang and was also influenced by the Neo-Platonists.

And Jung again emphasized that the animus compensates Eros, while the anima compensates Logos.