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Logos (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rationality form of discourse that relies on inductive and deductive reasoning.
Aristotle first systematized the usage of the word, making it one of the three principles of rhetoric alongside ethos and pathos. This original use identifies the word closely to the structure and content of language or text. Both Plato and Aristotle used the term logos (along with rhema) to refer to sentences and propositions.
is related to which is cognate with . The word derives from a Proto-Indo-European root, *leǵ-, which can have the meanings "I put in order, arrange, gather, choose, count, reckon, discern, say, speak". In modern usage, it typically connotes the verbs "account", "measure", "reason" or "discourse".Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3Dlo%2Fgos ''An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon'']: logos, 1889.Entry [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dlo%2Fgos λόγος] at [[LSJ]] online. It is occasionally used in other contexts, such as for "ratio" in mathematics.J. L. Heiberg, ''[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0085%3Abook%3D6%3Atype%3DProp%3Anumber%3D30 Euclid, Elements]'',
Within Hellenistic Judaism, Philo () integrated the term into Jewish philosophy. Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (2nd ed): Philo Judaeus, (1999). Philo distinguished between logos prophorikos ("the utterer word or speaker"), logos spermatikos("the speech") 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),May, Herbert G. and Bruce M. Metzger. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. 1977. and further identifies Jesus Christ as the incarnate Logos. Early translators of the Greek New Testament, such as Jerome (in the 4th century AD), experienced frustration with 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"; 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 favor of Wort (word), for instance, although later commentators repeatedly turned to a more dynamic use involving the living word as used 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.Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon: lexis, 1889. However, both logos and lexis derive from the same verb (λέγω]]), meaning "(I) count, tell, say, speak".Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon: legō, 1889.
In the ancient Greek context, the term logos in the sense of "word" or "discourse" also contrasted with mythos (). Classical Greek usage sees reasoned argument ( logos) as distinct from imaginative tales ( mythos).
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". Handboek geschiedenis van de wijsbegeerte 1, Article by Jaap Mansveld & Keimpe Algra, p. 41 Yet, an independent existence of a universal logos was clearly suggested by Heraclitus.W. K. C. Guthrie, The Greek Philosophers: From Thales to Aristotle, Methuen, 1967, p. 45.
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 three modes of persuasion. The other two modes are pathos (πᾰ́θος]], ), which refers to persuasion by means of emotional appeal, "putting the hearer into a certain frame of mind";Aristotle, Rhetoric, in Patricia P. Matsen, Philip B. Rollinson, and Marion Sousa, Readings from Classical Rhetoric, SIU Press (1990), , p. 120. 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".In the translation by W. Rhys Roberts, this reads "the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself". In the words of Paul Rahe:
Logos, pathos, and ethos can all be appropriate at different times.Eugene Garver, Aristotle's Rhetoric: An art of character, University of Chicago Press (1994), , p. 114. 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. On the other hand, trust in the speaker—built through ethos—enhances the appeal of arguments from reason.
Robert Wardy suggests that what Aristotle rejects in supporting the use of logos "is not emotional appeal per se, but rather emotional appeals that have no 'bearing on the issue', in that the pathē πᾰ́θη], ] they stimulate lack, or at any rate are not shown to possess, any intrinsic connection with the point at issue—as if an advocate were to try to whip an antisemitic audience into a fury because the accused is Jewish; or as if another in drumming up support for a politician were to exploit his listeners's reverential feelings for the politician's ancestors".Robert Wardy, "Mighty Is the Truth and It Shall Prevail?", in Essays on Aristotle's Rhetoric, Amélie Rorty (ed), University of California Press (1996), , p. 64.
Aristotle comments on the three modes by stating:
Stoic philosophy began with Zeno of Citium , 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.Tripolitis, A., Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age, pp. 37–38. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
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. Studies in European Philosophy, by James Lindsay (2006 1909), , p. 53 In his Introduction to the 1964 edition of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth wrote that " Logos ... had long been one of the leading terms of Stoicism, chosen originally for the purpose of explaining how deity came into relation with the universe".
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,David M. Timmerman and Edward Schiappa, Classical Greek Rhetorical Theory and the Disciplining of Discourse (London: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010): 43–66 and their partnership in generating an ethical, mindful polis. Isocrates does not provide a single definition of logos in his work, but Isocratean logos characteristically focuses on speech, reason, and civic discourse. He was concerned with establishing the "common good" of Ancient Athens citizens, which he believed could be achieved through the pursuit of philosophy and the application of logos.
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.
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. Ancient philosophy by Anthony Kenny (2007). p. 311 For Plotinus, the relationship between the three elements of his trinity is conducted by the outpouring of logos from the higher principle, and eros (loving) upward from the lower principle. The Enneads by Plotinus, Stephen MacKenna, John M. Dillon (1991) p. xcii [13] 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 second person of his trinity. Neoplatonism in Relation to Christianity by Charles Elsee (2009) pp. 89–90 [14] However, Plotinus influenced Gaius Marius Victorinus, who then influenced Augustine of Hippo. The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology edited by Alan Richardson, John Bowden (1983) p. 448 [15] Centuries later, Carl Jung acknowledged the influence of Plotinus in his use of the term. Jung and aesthetic experience by Donald H. Mayo, (1995) p. 69
Victorinus differentiated between the logos interior to God and the logos related to the world by creation and salvation. Theological treatises on the Trinity, by Marius Victorinus, Mary T. Clark, p. 25
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. Neoplatonism and Christian thought (Volume 2), By Dominic J. O'Meara, p. 39 A young Augustine experimented with, but failed to achieve ecstasy using the meditations of Plotinus.Hans Urs von Balthasar, Christian meditation Ignatius Press p. 8 In his Confessions, Augustine described logos as the Divine Eternal Word, Confessions, Augustine, p. 130 by which he, in part, was able to motivate the early Christian thought throughout the Hellenized world (of which the Latin speaking West was a part)Handboek Geschiedenis van de Wijsbegeerte I, Article by Douwe Runia Augustine's logos had taken body in Christ, the man in whom the logos (i.e. veritas or sapientia) was present as in no other man. De immortalitate animae of Augustine: text, translation and commentary, By Saint Augustine (Bishop of Hippo.), C. W. Wolfskeel, introduction
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. Sufism: love & wisdom by Jean-Louis Michon, Roger Gaetani (2006) p. 242 [16] Sufi essays by Seyyed Hossein Nasr 1973 p. 148]
One of the boldest and most radical attempts to reformulate the neoplatonic concepts into Sufism arose with the philosopher Ibn Arabi, who traveled widely in Spain and North Africa. His concepts were expressed in two 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 for ever remained hidden, had it not been for the prophets, with logos providing the link between man and divinity. Biographical encyclopaedia of Sufis by N. Hanif (2002). p. 39 [18]
Ibn Arabi seems to have adopted his version of the logos concept from neoplatonic and Christian sources,Charles A. Frazee, "Ibn al-'Arabī and Spanish Mysticism of the Sixteenth Century", Numen 14 (3), Nov 1967, pp. 229–240. although (writing in Arabic language rather than Greek) he used more than twenty 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.Robert J. Dobie (2025). 9780813216775, The Catholic University of America Press. . ISBN 9780813216775
Other Sufi writers also show the influence of the neoplatonic logos.Edward Henry Whinfield, Masnavi I Ma'navi: The spiritual couplets of Maulána Jalálu-'d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí, Routledge (2001) 1898, , p. xxv. In the 15th 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 Mohammed) has the power to assume different forms at different times and to appear in different guises. Biographical encyclopaedia of Sufis N. Hanif (2002). p. 98 [20]
In Ottoman Empire Sufism, Şeyh Gâlib (d. 1799) articulates Sühan ( logos- Kalima) in his Hüsn ü Aşk ( Beauty and Love) in parallel to Ibn Arabi's Kalima. In the romance, Sühan appears as an embodiment of Kalima as a reference to the Word of God, the Perfect Man, and the Reality of Muhammad.Betül Avcı, "Character of Sühan in Şeyh Gâlib’s Romance, Hüsn ü Aşk ( Beauty and Love)" Archivum Ottomanicum, 32 (2015).
For Jung, logos represented the masculine principle of rationality, in contrast to its feminine counterpart, eros:
The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek uses the terms rhema and logos as equivalents and uses both for the Hebrew language word dabar, as the Word of God. Theological dictionary of the New Testament, Volume 1 by Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, Geoffrey William Bromiley (1985). p. 508 [24] The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Q–Z by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (1995). p. 1102 [25] Old Testament Theology by Horst Dietrich Preuss, Leo G. Perdue (1996). p. 81 [26]
Some modern usage in Christian theology distinguishes rhema from logos (which here refers to the written scriptures) while rhema refers to the revelation received by the reader from the Holy Spirit when the Word ( logos) is read, What Every Christian Ought to Know. Adrian Rogers (2005). p. 162 [27] The Identified Life of Christ. Joe Norvell (2006) p. [28] although this distinction has been criticized.James T. Draper and Kenneth Keathley, Biblical Authority, Broadman & Holman (2001), , p. 113.John F. MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan (1993), , pp. 45–46.
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