What is logos in Philosophy?

Philosophy is a discipline of knowledge that is oriented to the study of the first causes, the last ends and also the essence of things and, to For this reason, endless theories and concepts have been developed that enable human beings to respond to a wide variety of fundamental problems on various issues. And, among them, it is worth highlighting the concept of logos.

In this article we will see what the logos in philosophy consists of and what has been its relevance within this discipline throughout history.

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What is logos in Philosophy?

In the first place, it should be noted that the word logos comes from the Greek (Λόγος, -lôgos-, "léghein") and can be translated in different ways: calculation, reason, reasoning, thought, speech, argumentation or discourse through the word or reason.

This word could also be understood as "sense" or "intelligence", and has been translated into Romance languages ​​as a verb. Furthermore, according to Aristotle's philosophy, logos is one of the three modes of persuasion in rhetoric, as are ethos and pathos.

Heraclitus (550-480 BC) C.), used for the first time in the V century a. c. the word logos in his "Theory of being" when he said: "Not to me, but having listened to the logos, it is wise to say with him that all is one." In this way he took the logos as the great unity of reality, for which Heraclitus asked the human being to listen to it; in other words, he was saying that we should wait for reality to manifest itself instead of pressing.

The "being" for Heraclitus, understood as the logos in philosophy, is the intelligence that orders directs and is in charge of giving harmony to the evolution of the changes that take place over time in the same existence; therefore, the logos in philosophy deals with a substantial intelligence, which is present in all things and when the human being loses the sense of his own existence it is because he has departed from the logos.

Therefore, the logos in philosophy was born as a doctrine of Classical Greece by the hand of Heraclitus, the philosopher who established by the first time that the human being had to interpret and approach the world by means of reason or logos, progressively imposing himself on the world. mythos.

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The myth versus the logos in Philosophy

In Ancient Greece mythical and archaic thought predominated, which is the one that is considered irrational and the one that would be in charge of giving an explanation of the facts by means of the imagination, being the thought associated with the mythos (Homer, 8th century to. C).

On the other hand, there would be logical and modern thought, which would be the one associated with the philosophical theories of Heraclitus and Herodotus, this type being of thought the one that is considered as rational, being explained through the proven truths and is the one that would be associated with the logos in philosophy.

The two types of thought coexisted for a long time until the logos would end up imposing itself on the mythos. and, in this way, rational thought would end up triumphing over the irrational type of thought, this process taking place between the 6th and 5th centuries BC. c. The myth would end up desecrated to become a literary work, art or a story, until it stopped performing a sacred function, thought to be profane.

Therefore, myth could be said to be a type of uncritical and unfounded thinking, based on animistic and emotionally committed knowledge; while logos in philosophy refers to a type of thought related to critical and grounded knowledge.

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Heraclitus and the logos in philosophy

As we have seen, the logos in philosophy began to be theorized within this discipline of knowledge through the philosopher Heraclitus, who gave it a meaning related to the type of rational thought, compared to the mythos or irrational thought prevailing at that time and, with the passage of time, the logos would end up establishing itself as the basis of all Western philosophy and thought, being the latter the one that has come to develop throughout history until reaching our days.

Therefore, there is a traditional consensus when it comes to considering Heraclitus as the father of the logos, being this a philosopher who considered that the human being has inside logos (reason), a very powerful tool that you must use to learn and know the reality from reason and, based on it, direct his own behavior. Thus, the logos would be what directs the universe and what should guide people, who do not always listen to the logos.

In this sense, for Heraclitus, the logos would be the one that dominates the universe and, therefore, the human being as well, by enabling harmony and order of things in life.

The logos in philosophy, moreover, has received different meanings. For example, the logos was for Plato the articulated speech that allows to explain an argument or a thing and it would also be an intermediary in the formation of the world.

On the other hand, for Aristotle, who understood that the logic is the one that deals with the declarative speech (of the speech that denies or affirms) this then became the fundamental object of logic as "logos apophantikos" ("declarative discourse"). Therefore, for Aristotle the logos was conceived as semantic content.

For the Stoics, who were in charge of developing Heraclitus's thesis on the logos, this was the divine principle that was in charge of governing and dominating nature and the divine universe.

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Why has it been so important to philosophers?

Logos is a concept that has had great significance due to its crucial importance when moving from myth to logos. We could say that the logos is the basis of the philosophy that managed to evolve throughout history until our time.

For Philo of Alexandria the logos was considered as the moral law and the unifying principle of the intelligible, thus being the intermediary between creatures and their creator; therefore, it would be the reality that is responsible for mediating between the absolute transcendence of the creator and the finitude of creatures or beings, including the human being.

It is important to highlight the importance that logos came to have in philosophy during the Age of Enlightenment (in Europe during the 18th century), when the conception of the ability to reasoning of the human being as an unlimited source, this being the only possible way to know the truth. Therefore, from this perspective, the human being is fundamentally a rational being and, therefore, to discover the truth must rely on his reasoning to progress and acquire knowledge about various scopes.

From this perspective, we can highlight the philosophical thesis of Hegel (18th century), a philosopher who came to consider the logos as an absolute concept, so that he conceived that everything that surrounds the human being is rational and there is nothing that is out of the ordinary.

In the 21st century, the logos in philosophy is still considered as a synonym of "reason" and also as the universal principle that is responsible for governing all human beings.

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The definition of logos according to Psychology

Once we have seen what logos is in philosophy, it is convenient to mention what it means in psychology, and more specifically in logotherapy. This was a Viennese school of psychotherapy that was developed by Victor Frankl after the individual psychology of Alfred Adler and the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud.

In this area of ​​the History of Psychology, the search for the logos was "the search for the meaning of existence", the main objective of therapeutic and existential work. According to logotherapy, in order to find the meaning and meaning that guide the actions or praxis of all human beings, it is necessary to approach the logos.