Logos (UK: /ˈl oʊ ɡ ɒ s, ˈl ɒ ɡ ɒ s/, US: /ˈl oʊ ɡ oʊ s/; Ancient Greek: λόγος, romanized: lógos, meaning "word, discourse, or reason") is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, and religion, especially Christianity. It most broadly means reason, logic, order, or understanding. It also refers to a logical way of speaking or writing that uses inductive and deductive reasoning.
Aristotle was the first to organize the use of the word, making it one of the three main parts of rhetoric: ethos, pathos, and logos. This early use connected the word to how language and writing are structured and what they contain. Plato and Aristotle both used the term logos (as well as rhema) to describe sentences and statements.
Background
The Ancient Greek word λόγος (romanized: lógos) means "word, discourse, or reason." It is connected to the Ancient Greek word λέγω (romanized: légō), meaning "I say," which is related to the Latin word lex, meaning "law." The word comes from a Proto-Indo-European root, *leǵ-, which can mean "to put in order, arrange, gather, choose, count, reckon, discern, say, or speak." In modern times, the word often refers to the verbs "account," "measure," "reason," or "discourse." It is sometimes used in other ways, such as for "ratio" in mathematics.
Origins of the term
The word "logos" became a special term in Western philosophy, starting with Heraclitus (about 535–475 BC). He used it to describe a principle of order and knowledge. Ancient Greek philosophers used the term in different ways. The sophists used it to mean "discourse." Aristotle used it to refer to "reasoned discourse" or "the argument" in the field of rhetoric, and he saw it as one of three ways to persuade people, along with ethos and pathos. Pyrrhonist philosophers used it to describe fixed explanations about things that could not be proven. The Stoics talked about "logos spermatikos," which was the force that created the universe, an idea similar to later thoughts in Neoplatonism.
In Hellenistic Judaism, Philo (about 20 BC–50 AD) included the term in Jewish philosophy. Philo separated three types of logos: logos prophorikos ("the speaking word"), logos spermatikos ("the speech"), and logos endiathetos ("the word inside the mind").
The Gospel of John describes the Christian Logos as the divine force through which everything was created, and it identifies Jesus Christ as the Logos made into a person. Early translators of the Greek New Testament, like Jerome (in the 4th century AD), had trouble finding a single Latin word that fully explained the meaning of "logos" when describing Jesus in the Gospel of John. The Latin Bible, called the Vulgate, used the word "verbum" (meaning "word") for "logos," even though this might not have been perfect. Later translations in Romance languages, such as French, used words like "le Verbe." During the Reformation, Martin Luther chose "Wort" (word) instead of "Zeitwort" (verb) for the German Bible. Later thinkers often focused on the idea of the "living word," as used by Jerome and Augustine. The term is also used in Sufism and in the study of the mind by Carl Jung.
Although "logos" is often translated as "word," it does not mean a word in the strict grammar sense. For that, the term "lexis" (λέξις) was used. However, both "logos" and "lexis" come from the same Greek verb "légō" (λέγω), which means "to count, tell, say, or speak."
In ancient Greece, "logos" meant "word" or "discourse" and was different from "mythos" (μῦθος), which meant "story" or "myth." Classical Greek thinkers saw reasoned argument (logos) as separate from imaginative stories (mythos).
Ancient Greek philosophy
The writing of Heraclitus (around 535 to 475 BC) was the first place where the word logos received special attention in ancient Greek philosophy. However, Heraclitus used the word in a way that was not much different from how ordinary Greeks used it at the time. For Heraclitus, logos connected rational thinking with the structure of the world.
This logos is always present, but humans often fail to understand it, even after hearing it. Though all things happen in line with this logos, people often act without recognizing its guidance. They may notice details in their actions or words, but others do not pay attention to what they do when awake, just as they forget what they do when asleep.
Because of this, it is important to follow what is shared by all. Even though logos is common, most people act as if they have their own private understanding. Listening to logos rather than personal opinions, it is wise to agree that all things are one.
The meaning of logos here is unclear. It might mean "reason" or "explanation" as an objective law of the universe, or it might simply mean "saying" or "wisdom." However, Heraclitus clearly suggested that a universal logos exists independently.
Later, Aristotle used the word logos in a different way in his work Rhetoric. He defined it as one of three methods of persuasion: logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos refers to arguments based on reason, pathos is persuasion through emotional appeal, and ethos is persuasion through the speaker’s moral character. Aristotle said logos involves the speech itself, as it proves or seems to prove a point.
Paul Rahe explained that logos allows humans to distinguish between what is good and bad, just and unjust, or beneficial and harmful through reasoned discussion.
Logos, pathos, and ethos are all useful at different times. Logical arguments are strong because facts are hard to change, but arguments based on the speaker’s credibility (ethos) can strengthen logical arguments.
Robert Wardy noted that Aristotle rejected emotional appeals that are not related to the topic. For example, stirring anger in an audience over unrelated issues, like a person’s race, would not be effective.
Aristotle wrote:
"Of the modes of persuasion in spoken words, there are three kinds. The first depends on the speaker’s character. The second depends on putting the audience in a certain mood. The third depends on the proof or apparent proof in the speech itself."
— Aristotle, Rhetoric, 350 BC
Stoic philosophy began with Zeno of Citium around 300 BC. For the Stoics, logos was the active reason that filled and gave life to the universe. It was seen as material and often linked to God or Nature. The Stoics also spoke of logos spermatikos, or the law of generation in the universe, which was the principle of active reason in inanimate matter. Humans also have a portion of the divine logos.
The Stoics believed all activity involved a logos or spiritual principle. To them, logos was anima mundi (the soul of the world), a concept that later influenced Philo of Alexandria. Maxwell Staniforth, an Anglican priest, wrote that logos was a key Stoic term used to explain how the divine relates to the universe.
Public discussions about ancient Greek rhetoric have focused on Aristotle’s ideas of logos, pathos, and ethos. Less attention has been given to Isocrates’ teachings on philosophy and logos, and how they worked together to create an ethical, thoughtful society. Isocrates did not define logos in one way, but his use of logos often centered on speech, reason, and civic discussion. He believed the "common good" of Athenian citizens could be achieved through philosophy and the use of logos.
In Hellenistic Judaism
Philo (c. 20 BC – c. 50 AD), a Hellenized Jew, used the term logos to describe an intermediary divine being or a creator-like figure. Philo believed that the physical world was imperfect, while perfect ideas existed separately. Because of this, he thought beings like the logos were needed to connect God with the material world. The logos was the most important of these beings, and Philo called it "the first-born of God." He also wrote that the logos of the living God "holds all things together and prevents them from being separated."
Plato’s Theory of Forms was connected to the logos, but the logos also acted on God’s behalf in the physical world. For example, Philo identified the logos with the "Angel of the Lord" in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), saying the logos was God’s tool in creating the universe.
The idea of logos also appears in the Targums, which are Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible from the first centuries AD. In these texts, the word memra (meaning "word" in Aramaic) is often used instead of "the Lord" when describing a visible or human-like form of God.
Christianity
In Christology, the Logos (Koine Greek: Λόγος, meaning "word, discourse, or reason") is a name or title for Jesus Christ. It represents the complete and full expression of all the attributes of the infinite and spiritually transcendent Godhead. This idea is found in verses like John 1:1 in translations such as the Douay–Rheims (1582), King James (1604), and the New International Version. In these translations, "logos" is written as "Word" with a capital letter. The verse reads: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Gnosticism
According to the Gnostic scriptures found in the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, the Logos is an outflow of the great spirit. This outflow is combined with the spiritual being named Adamas.
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonist philosophers, such as Plotinus (c. 204/5–270 AD), used the term logos in ways that connected to ideas from Plato and the Stoics. However, the meaning of logos varied among Neoplatonists, and similarities to Philo’s use of the term seem to be coincidental. For Plotinus, logos was a central idea in his meditations, which he considered the foundation of Neoplatonism. He traced the concept of logos back to earlier thinkers like Heraclitus and Thales, describing it as the principle that connects the soul, the intellect (nous), and the One.
Plotinus introduced a trinity-like structure made up of "The One," "Spirit," and "Soul." While this structure resembles the Christian Trinity, Plotinus did not see these three elements as equal. In his view, "The One" was the highest, and "Soul" was the lowest. The relationship between these parts was guided by logos, which flowed downward from the higher elements, and eros (desire or love), which moved upward from the lower elements. Plotinus emphasized logos in his writings, but he did not directly reference Christian ideas. However, his teachings show some connections to Christian thought. He avoided using logos to describe the second part of his trinity. Plotinus’s ideas later influenced Gaius Marius Victorinus, who in turn influenced Augustine of Hippo. Centuries later, Carl Jung noted the impact of Plotinus on his own work.
Victorinus distinguished between logos as part of God and logos as related to the world through creation and salvation. Augustine of Hippo, often called the father of medieval philosophy, was deeply influenced by Plato and reinterpreted Aristotle and Plato through the lens of early Christian thought. As a young man, Augustine tried but failed to achieve spiritual ecstasy using Plotinus’s meditations. In his work Confessions, Augustine described logos as the "Divine Eternal Word," which helped shape early Christian ideas in the Hellenized world, including the Latin-speaking West. For Augustine, logos became embodied in Christ, the man in whom logos (meaning truth or wisdom) was fully present.
Islam
The idea of the logos is also found in Islam, where it was clearly explained mainly in the writings of classical Sunni mystics and Islamic philosophers, as well as by some Shi'a thinkers during the Islamic Golden Age. In Sunni Islam, the concept of the logos has been given many names by the denomination's thinkers, including ʿaql ("Intellect"), al-insān al-kāmil ("Universal Man"), kalimat Allāh ("Word of God"), haqīqa muḥammadiyya ("The Muhammadan Reality"), and nūr muḥammadī ("The Muhammadan Light").
One of the names used for a concept similar to the Christian Logos by Muslim thinkers is ʿaql, which is the "Arabic equivalent to the Greek νοῦς (intellect)." In the writings of Islamic neoplatonist philosophers, such as al-Farabi (c. 872 – c. 950 AD) and Avicenna (d. 1037), the idea of ʿaql was described in a way that both resembled "the late Greek doctrine" and "corresponded in many respects to the Logos Christology."
In Sufism, the concept of logos is used to connect the "Uncreated" (God) to the "Created" (humanity). For the Deist, no communication between humans and God is possible without the logos. The logos is present everywhere and remains the same, but its personification is "unique" in each region. Jesus and Muhammad are seen as the personifications of the logos, which allows them to speak with such certainty.
One of the most significant attempts to adapt neoplatonic ideas into Sufism was made by the philosopher Ibn Arabi, who traveled widely in Spain and North Africa. His ideas were written in two major works: The Ringstones of Wisdom (Fusus al-Hikam) and The Meccan Illuminations (Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya). For Ibn Arabi, every prophet corresponds to a reality he called a logos (Kalimah), which is an aspect of the unique divine being. He believed the divine being would remain hidden forever if not for the prophets, who serve as the link between humans and divinity through the logos.
Ibn Arabi appears to have drawn his version of the logos concept from neoplatonic and Christian sources, though (writing in Arabic rather than Greek) he used more than twenty different terms to describe it. For Ibn Arabi, the logos or "Universal Man" acted as a bridge between individuals and the divine essence.
Other Sufi writers also show the influence of the neoplatonic logos. 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 Prophet) has the ability to take on different forms and appear in different ways at different times.
In Ottoman Sufism, Şeyh Gâlib (d. 1799) described Sühan (logos – Kalima) in his work Hüsn ü Aşk (Beauty and Love), similar to Ibn Arabi's Kalima. In this work, Sühan is shown as a representation of the Word of God, the Perfect Man, and the Reality of Muhammad.
Jung's analytical psychology
Carl Jung compared the logical and reasoning abilities of logos with the emotional and imaginative aspects of eros. In Jung's view, logos and eros can be shown as "science versus mysticism," "reason versus imagination," or "conscious actions versus the unconscious."
For Jung, logos represented the male side of thinking, which focuses on logic and facts. This contrasts with eros, which represents the female side, connected to emotions and relationships.
Jung explained that a woman's psychology is based on eros, which involves connecting with others and being open to change. In contrast, the male principle, logos, has been historically linked to logic and an interest in objective, real-world matters.
Rhetoric
Jeanne Fahnestock, an author and professor, explains that logos is a "premise." She says that to understand why a speaker supports a certain position, one should examine the different "premises" the speaker uses through their word choice. She argues that the speaker's success is based on "points that both the speaker and the audience agree on."
Rhema
The words logos and rhema have been used in different ways. Plato and Aristotle used both terms to describe sentences and ideas.
The Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, uses logos and rhema as the same as the Hebrew word dabar. This refers to the Word of God.
In some modern Christian teachings, logos is used for the written Bible, while rhema means the message received by a person from the Holy Spirit when they read the Word (logos). However, some people have questioned this difference.