The Concept of Logos in Greek Culture Marian Hillar Center for Philosophy and Socinian Studies
The Concept of Logos in Greek Culture Marian Hillar Center for Philosophy and Socinian Studies From Chapter 1 in Marian Hillar, From Logos to Pythagoras. The Evolution of Religious Beliefs from Pythagoras to Tertullian, Cambridge University Press, 2012. A. Pythagoras, Heraclitus of Ephesus, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Diogenes of Apollonia, and Anaximenes The term Logos (Lo,goj) was widely used in the Greco-Roman culture and in Judaism. It has many meanings such as word, speech, statement, discourse, refutation, ratio, proportion, account, explanation, reason, thought.1 This term, however is not used for a “word” as used in the grammar, but another term, lexis (le,xij), is used instead. Both these terms derive from the Greek word legō, (le,gw), meaning to tell, to say, to speak, to count. But the meanings which have philosophical and religious implications are basically two: as an inward thought or reason, an intuitive conception, and as an outward expression of thought in speech. In any theistic system it could therefore easily be used to account for a revelation or could be personified and designate a separate being. Throughout most schools of Greek philosophy, this term was used to designate a rational, intelligent and thus vivifying principle of the universe. This principle was deduced from an analogy to the living creature, and since the ancient Greeks understood the universe as a living reality in accordance with their belief, it had to be vivified by some principle, i.e., the universal Logos. Pythagoras 2 Beginning with the father of Greek philosophy, Pythagoras of Samos (b. ca 570 B.C.E.), we find already in place all the elements of future Greek schools, of the Philonic synthesis of Hellenic philosophy with Hebrew myth and of the so- called Christian philosophy.
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