Logos

Logos (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English" title="British English">UK</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">/ˈloʊɡɒs, ˈlɒɡɒs/</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English" title="American English">US</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English">/ˈloʊɡoʊs/</a>; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CF%8C%CE%B3%CE%BF%CF%82" class="extiw" title="wiktionary:λόγος">λόγος</a>, from <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%AD%CE%B3%CF%89" class="extiw" title="wikt:λέγω">λέγω</a> lego "I say") is an important term in western <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy">philosophy</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology" title="Psychology">psychology</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric" title="Rhetoric">rhetoric</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion" title="Religion">religion</a>. It is a Greek word meaning "ground", "plea", "opinion", "expectation", "word", "speech", "account", "reason", "discourse",<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-LSJlogos-1">[1]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-2">[2]</a> but it became a technical term in philosophy beginning with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus" title="Heraclitus">Heraclitus</a> (c. 535–475 BCE), who used the term for a principle of order and knowledge.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-3">[3]</a>

Ancient Greek philosophers used the term in different ways. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophist" title="Sophist">sophists</a> used the term to mean <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse" title="Discourse">discourse</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle" title="Aristotle">Aristotle</a> applied the term to refer to "reasoned discourse"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-PaulRahe-4">[4]</a> or "the argument" in the field of rhetoric.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-5">[5]</a> The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism" title="Stoicism">Stoic</a> philosophers identified the term with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity" title="Divinity">divine</a> animating principle pervading the Universe. Under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_Judaism" title="Hellenistic Judaism">Hellenistic Judaism</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo" title="Philo">Philo</a> (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE) adopted the term into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish" class="mw-redirect" title="Jewish">Jewish</a> philosophy.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-cdpPhilo-6">[6]</a> The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John" title="Gospel of John">Gospel of John</a> identifies the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos_%28Christianity%29" title="Logos (Christianity)">Logos</a>, through which all things are made, as divine (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God" title="God">theos</a>),<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-May_Metzger-7">[7]</a> and further identifies <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ" class="mw-redirect" title="Jesus Christ">Jesus Christ</a> as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarnation" title="Incarnation">incarnate</a> Logos. Although the term "Logos" is widely used in this Christian sense, in academic circles it often refers to the various ancient Greek uses, or to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postchristianity" title="Postchristianity">post-Christian</a> uses within contemporary philosophy, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism" title="Sufism">Sufism</a>, and the analytical psychology of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung" title="Carl Jung">Carl Jung</a>.

Despite the conventional translation as "word", it is not used for a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word" title="Word">word</a> in the grammatical sense; instead, the term lexis (<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%AD%CE%BE%CE%B9%CF%82" class="extiw" title="wikt:λέξις">λέξις</a>) was used.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-LSJlexis-8">[8]</a> However, both logos and lexis derive from the same verb legō (<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%AD%CE%B3%CF%89" class="extiw" title="wikt:λέγω">λέγω</a>), meaning "count, tell, say, speak".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-LSJlogos-1">[1]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-LSJlexis-8">[8]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-LSJlego-9">[9]</a>

Professor Jeanne Fahnestock describes logos as a "premise."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-10">[10]</a> She states that, to find the reason behind a rhetor's backing of a certain position or stance, one must acknowledge the different "premises" that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetor" class="mw-redirect" title="Rhetor">rhetor</a> applies via his or her chosen diction.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-members.tripod.com-11">[11]</a> She continues by stating that the rhetor's success will come down to "certain objects of agreement...between arguer and audience."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-members.tripod.com-11">[11]</a> "Logos is logical appeal, and the term logic is derived from it. It is normally used to describe facts and figures that support the speaker's topic."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-mountainman.com.au-12">[12]</a> Furthermore, logos is credited with appealing to the audience's sense of logic, with the definition of “logic” being concerned with the thing as it is known.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-mountainman.com.au-12">[12]</a> Furthermore, you can appeal to this sense of logic in two ways: 1) through inductive logic, providing the audience with relevant examples and using them to point back to the overall statement;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-Ethos.2C_Pathos.2C_and_Logos-13">[13]</a> 2) through deductive <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthymeme" title="Enthymeme">enthymeme</a>, providing the audience with general scenarios and then pulling out a certain truth.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-Ethos.2C_Pathos.2C_and_Logos-13">[13]</a>

Philo distinguished between logos prophorikos ("the uttered word") and the logos endiathetos ("the word remaining within").<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-14">[14]</a> The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoics" class="mw-redirect" title="Stoics">Stoics</a> also spoke of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_Stoic_terms#L" class="mw-redirect" title="Glossary of Stoic terms">logos spermatikos</a> (the generative principle of the Universe), which is not important in the Biblical tradition but is relevant in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism" title="Neoplatonism">Neoplatonism</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-15">[15]</a> Early translators from Greek, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome" title="Jerome">Jerome</a> in the 4th century, were frustrated by the inadequacy of any single Latin word to convey the Logos expressed in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John" title="Gospel of John">Gospel of John</a>. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgate" title="Vulgate">Vulgate</a> Bible usage of in principio erat verbum was thus constrained to use the (perhaps inadequate) noun verbum for "word", but later <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Romance language">romance language</a> translations had the advantage of nouns such as le mot in French. Reformation translators took another approach. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther" title="Martin Luther">Martin Luther</a> 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 felt by Jerome and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo" title="Augustine of Hippo">Augustine</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos#cite_note-16">[16]</a>

Logos

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