Information about Logos

Logos (Greek λόγος) is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion. It derives from the verb lego: to say. This is the primary meaning of the word. Secondary meanings such as logic, thought etc. derive from the fact that if one is capable of λέγειν (infinitive) i.e. speech, then intelligence and thought are assumed.

Its semantic field extends beyond "" to notions such as "thought, speech, account, meaning, reason, , principle, standard", or "logic". In English, the word is the root of "log" (as in record), of "logic," and of the "-ology" suffix (e.g., geology).

Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning the fundamental order of the cosmos. The sophists used the term to mean discourse, and Aristotle applied the term to argument from reason. After Judaism came under Hellenistic influence, Philo adopted the term into Jewish philosophy. The Gospel of John identifies Jesus as the incarnation of the Logos, through which all things are made. The gospel further identifies the Logos as God (theos), providing scriptural support for the trinity. It is this sense, the Logos as Jesus Christ and God, that is most common in popular culture.

Psychologist Carl Jung used the term for the masculine principle of rationality.

Uses in ancient Greek

In ordinary, non-technical Greek, logos had two overlapping meanings: It meant an instance of speaking: "sentence, saying, oration"; the antithesis with ergon ("action" or "work") was a commonplace. Despite the conventional translation as "word", it is not used for a word in the grammatical sense; that's lexis. But both logos and lexis derive from the same verb . It also means the inward intention underlying the speech act: "opinion, thought, grounds for belief, common sense". ^[1]

Use in ancient philosophy

Heraclitus (c 535–475 BCE) established the term in Western philosophy and was one of the first to associate it with fire.

One must not follow what is common; but, even though the Logos is common, most people live as though they possessed their own understanding of it. (Heraclitian fragment 2) The common is what is open to all, what can be seen and heard by all. To see is to let in with open eyes what is open to view, i.e. what is lit up and revealed to all. The dead (the completely private ones) neither see nor hear; they are not closed. No light (fire) shines in them; no speech sounds in them. And yet, even they participate in the cosmos. The extinguished ones also belong to the continuum of lighting and extinguishing that is the common cosmos. The dead touch upon the living sleeping, who in turn touch upon the living waking. (Heraclitian fragment 26)

Heraclitus also used Logos to mean the undifferentiated material substrate from which all things came: "Listening not to me but to the Logos it is wise to agree that all [things] are one." In this sense, Logos is the arche, the first principle of the cosmos in Pre-Socratic philosophy. Logos therefore designates both the material substrate itself and the universal, mechanical, "just" way in which this substrate manifests itself in and as individual things; that is, it subsumes within itself the later Platonic distinction (in Timaeus) between "form" and "matter".

By the 300s BC, the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, logos described the faculty of human reason and the knowledge men had of the world and of each other. Plato allowed his characters to engage in the conceit of describing logos as a living being in some of his dialogues. The development of the Academy with hypomnemata brought logos closer to the literal text. Aristotle, who studied under Plato, first developed the concept of logic as depicting the rules of human rationality.

The Stoics understood Logos as the animating power of the universe.

Aristotle's rhetorical logos

Aristotle defined logos as argument from reason, one of the three modes of persuasion. The other two modes are pathos, emotional appeal, and ethos, reputation and credibility. An argument based on logos needs to be logical, and in fact the term logic derives from it. Logos normally implies numbers, polls, and other mathematical or scientific data.

Logos has many advantages:

• Data is hard to manipulate, so it is harder to argue against a logos argument.
• Logos makes the speaker look prepared and knowledgeable to the audience, enhancing ethos.

Philo of Alexandria

Philo (20 BC - 50 AD), a Hellenized Jew, used the term logos to mean the creative principle. Philo followed the Platonic distinction between imperfect matter and perfect idea. The logos was necessary, he taught, because God cannot come into contact with matter. He sometimes identified logos as divine wisdom.

Use in Christianity

See also:  and

In Christianity, the prologue of the Gospel of John calls Jesus "the Logos" (usually translated as "the Word" in English Bibles such as the KJV). Christians who profess belief in the Trinity often consider this to be a central text in their belief that Jesus is the Divine Son of God, in connection with the idea that God and Jesus are equals.

Other scholars, however, disagree with this translation and the subsequent interpretation of the text. Some Translations render John 1:1 to state "and the Word was a god" rather than the more Traditional "the Word was God." This translation is seen in Bible Versions such as the NWT, as well as several German Translations.

The Latin Vulgate states, "In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum" ("In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God: and the Word was God.").

The literal Greek text reads: “In beginning was the word, and the word was toward the god, and god was the word.” There are no capitals, and thus the translator must supply them. It is clearly proper to capitalize “God” in translating the phrase “the god,” since this must identify the Almighty God with whom the Word, or Logos, was. However, capitalizing the second instance of the word “god” cannot be justified in the same way. As noted below, some translations say "the Word was God", while others say "the Word was a god". While it is true that there is no indefinite article ('a', or 'an') in the original Greek text, this is because Koine Greek had no indefinite article in the language. Thus, translators are required to use the indefinite article, or not, based on their understanding of the text.

There is good reason for utilizing the indefinite article in translation of this text. Note first that the Word was "with" God, and hence could not "be" Almighty God, although this could be describing the oftentimes unclear relationship between God the Father and Christ the Son, and their equality. Additionally, the word for "god' in it's second occurence is significantly without the definite article "the". Regarding this fact, Ernst Haenchen, in a commentary on the Gospel of John (chapters 1-6), stated: “[the·os′] and [ho the·os′] (‘god, divine’ and ‘the God’) were not the same thing in this period. . . . In fact, for the . . . Evangelist, only the Father was ‘God’ ([ho the·os′]; cf. 17:3); ‘the Son’ was subordinate to him (cf. 14:28). But that is only hinted at in this passage because here the emphasis is on the proximity of the one to the other . . . . It was quite possible in Jewish and Christian monotheism to speak of divine beings that existed alongside and under God but were not identical with him. Phil 2:6-10 proves that. In that passage Paul depicts just such a divine being, who later became man in Jesus Christ . . . Thus, in both Philippians and John 1:1 it is not a matter of a dialectical relationship between two-in-one, but of a personal union of two entities.”—John 1, translated by R. W. Funk, 1984, pp. 109, 110. This may , however, contradict the assertion in many parts of both the New and Old Testament that there is only one God. In Christianity, the concept of the Trinity is used to describe a God of three Persons. The Gospel of John can be seen to confirm that God can be a God of multiple Persons while remaining at the same time One God.

After giving as a translation of John 1:1c “and divine (of the category divinity) was the Word,” Haenchen goes on to state: “In this instance, the verb ‘was’ ([en]) simply expresses predication. And the predicate noun must accordingly be more carefully observed: [the·os′] is not the same thing as [ho the·os′] (‘divine’ is not the same thing as ‘God’).” Other scholars, such as Philip B. Harner elaborate on the grammatical construction found here. (Journal of Biblical Literature, 1973, pp. 85, 87)

Translation A:

1973 "the Word was God" New International Version

1611 "the Word was God" King James Version (Authorized Version)

1995 "and was truly God" Contemporary English Version

2001 "and God was the word." Wycliffe New Testament

Translation B:

1808 “and the word was a god” -- The New Testament, in An Improved Version, Upon the Basis of Archbishop William Newcome’s New Translation: With a Corrected Text, London.

1864 “and a god was the Word” -- Emphatic Diaglott (J21, interlinear reading), by Benjamin Wilson, New York and London.

1935 “and the Word was divine” -- The Bible—An American Translation, by J. M. Powis Smith and Edgar J. Goodspeed, Chicago.

1950 “and the Word was a god” -- New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, Brooklyn.

1975 “and a god (or, of a divine kind) was the Word” -- Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Siegfried Schulz, Göttingen, Germany.

Some scholars of the Bible have suggested that John made creative use of double meaning in the word "Logos" to communicate to both Jews, who were familiar with the Wisdom tradition in Judaism, and Hellenic polytheism, especially followers of Philo. Each of these two groups had its own history associated with the concept of the Logos, and each could understand John's use of the term from one or both of those contexts. Especially for the Hellenists, however, John turns the concept of the Logos on its head when he claimed "the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us" (v. 14). Similarly, some translations of the Gospel of John into Chinese have used the word "Tao (道)" to translate the "Logos" in a provocative way.

Christian apologist Justin Martyr (c 150) identified Jesus as the Logos. He portrayed Jesus not as "the Maker of all things" but as "the Angel of the Lord", subject to the Maker of all things.^[2]

Early Christians who opposed the concept of Jesus as the Logos were known as alogoi.

John's placement of the Word at creation reflects Genesis, in which God (Elohim) speaks the world into being, beginning with the words "Let there be light." The term Logos ("word") also reflects the term ''dabar Yahweh" ("Word of God") in the Hebrew Bible.

Gordon Clark (1902 - 1985), a Calvinist theologian and expert on pre-Socratic philosophy, famously translated Logos as "Logic": "In the beginning was the Logic, and the Logic was with God and the Logic was God." He meant to imply by this translation that the laws of logic were contained in the Bible itself and were therefore not a secular principle imposed on the Christian world view. His theology was founded on propositional truth and logic.

On April 1, 2005, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who would become Pope Benedict XVI just over two weeks later) referred to the Christian religion as the religion of the Logos:

Christianity must always remember that it is the religion of the "Logos." It is faith in the "Creator Spiritus," in the Creator Spirit, from which proceeds everything that exists. Today, this should be precisely its philosophical strength, in so far as the problem is whether the world comes from the irrational, and reason is not, therefore, other than a "sub-product," on occasion even harmful of its development or whether the world comes from reason, and is, as a consequence, its criterion and goal.

The Christian faith inclines toward this second thesis, thus having, from the purely philosophical point of view, really good cards to play, despite the fact that many today consider only the first thesis as the only modern and rational one par excellence. However, a reason that springs from the irrational, and that is, in the final analysis, itself irrational, does not constitute a solution for our problems. Only creative reason, which in the crucified God is manifested as love, can really show us the way. In the so necessary dialogue between secularists and Catholics, we Christians must be very careful to remain faithful to this fundamental line: to live a faith that comes from the "Logos," from creative reason, and that, because of this, is also open to all that is truly rational.^[3]

Catholics can use logos to refer to the moral law written in human hearts. This comes from Jeremiah 31:33 (prophecy of new covenant): "I will write my law on their hearts." St. Justin wrote that those who have not accepted Christ but follow the moral law of their hearts (logos) follow God, because it is God who has written the moral law in each person's heart. Though man may not explicitly recognize God, he has the spirit of Christ if he follows Jesus' moral laws, written in his heart. According to Fr. William Most's article for EWTN (Catholic television network), those who have the spirit of Christ belong to the body of Christ. He writes, "Those who follow the Spirit of Christ, the Logos who writes the law on their hearts, are Christians, are members of Christ, are members of His Church. They may lack indeed external adherence; they may never have heard of the Church. But yet, in the substantial sense, without formal adherence, they do belong to Christ, to His Church."

Jung's analytical psychology

In Carl Jung's analytical psychology, the logos is the masculine principle of rationality and consciousness. Its female counterpart, eros (Greek, love), represents interconnectedness.

Similar concepts

In modern philosophy

Early 20th century movements towards specificity of operational definitions have developed an analog to logos in the concept of world view (or worldview) when used as Weltanschauung (pronounced [ˈvɛlt.anˌʃaʊ.ʊŋ]) meaning a "look onto the world." It implies a concept fundamental to German philosophy and epistemology and refers to a wide world perception. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts in it. The German word is also in wide use in English, as well as the translated form world outlook. (Compare with ideology). Weltanschauung is the conceptualization that all ideology, beliefs and political movements is both limited and defined by this schemata of common linguistic understanding.

Goethe has his Faust translate John's logos as "Will", an idea taken up by Aleister Crowley Thelema, equating a person's "Word" with their "True Will".

The idea is similar to Apollinarism.

Logos as it is also presently understood today in Theosophical terms and by the Rosicrucians (in their conception of the cosmos) which further influenced how this word was understood later on (in 20th century psychology, for instance).

Contemporary references

The Logos was also the name of a a ship in the popular movie series The Matrix, piloted by Niobe. Besides this ship, many other things, such as ships and the main city, are named after philosophical or theological things. See also: Thematic motifs of the Matrix series.

A 2004 episode of "" (episode #419, "Bad Words") featured a fictional, Scrabble-like board game played with round, lettered tiles. The game was called "Logos."

In R. Scott Bakker's "The Prince of Nothing" trilogy the monastic sect of the Dünyain, which believes that enlightenment can be found through control of all desire and circumstance, uses the Logos as a base of law, order, logic, and judgement.

In the MMORPG Tabula Rasa, Logos refers to a mysterious power that allows players to "harness the very fabric of the cosmos to offer rebel forces an advantage against an overwhelming foe."[1]

Anne Sexton refers to the Logos in her poem "When Man Enters Woman."

In the anime series Gundam SEED DESTINY, Logos is the name of an organization that manipulates world politics in order to profit from war. It is destroyed during the Second Bloody Valentine War.

See also

• Rhema
• Spirituality
• Nous
• Parmenides
• Christianity
• Sophia

References

• The entry for "logos" in the standard work A Greek-English Lexicon by Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, and H. Stuart Jones
• D. A. Carson (1991). The Gospel According to John. ISBN 0-85111-749-X
• Leon Morris (1995). The Gospel According to John (New International Commentary on the New Testament). ISBN 0-8028-2504-4
• The Apologist's Bible Commentary
• John Robbins (1993). "An Introduction to Gordon H. Clark" in The Trinity Review, July/August 1993.
• Guenther Witzany (2006). "The Logos of the Bios 1. Contributions to the foundation of a three-levelled biosemiotics". Helsinki, Umweb. ISBN 952-5576-01-9
• Guenther Witzany (2007). "The Logos of the Bios 2. Bio-Communication". Helsinki, Umweb. ISBN 952-5576-04-7
• Chris Leads (1990). Word Type in Ancient Formats.
• Musical rendering of John 1:1-5's Koine text
• Musical rendering of John 1:1-5's Van Dyke's Arabic translation

Notes