Logos is in philosophy what? The concept of "logos"

The generally accepted fact is that philosophy originated in ancient Greece in the sixth century BC. E.

The term itself consists of such Greek words as "phileo" (love) and "sophia" (wisdom). So, the literal translation is "love of wisdom." Philosophy can be interpreted as a doctrine of the world, about general laws and principles of being, knowledge. It is a kind of spiritual and rational development of reality. In philosophy, the term "logos" plays an important role.

Interpretation of the concept

The ancient Greek term "logos" was first used by the philosopher and politician Heraclitus. He used it in his teaching as one of the main concepts. The term "logos" in the philosophy of antiquity becomes subsequently very popular and acquires many variations of interpretations.

Most often it is treated as "thought" or "meaning" (concept). Also translated is the translation of the word (meaningful, meaningful, information about the subject or phenomenon). In another way, logos is in philosophy a word carrying an inseparable thought.

In different contexts, this concept had different meanings.

The ambiguity of the concept of "logos"

Numerous interpretations of the term in question are found mainly in Heraclitus, in particular:

1. Logos in philosophy is a universal law to which everything in the world is subject ("the all-ruling Logos").
2. It is an expression of certainty and constancy, and it also establishes a kind of boundaries within which all changes and transformations take place. Logos in philosophy is (briefly) a law that makes the world harmonious, orderly and proportionate. That is, all the changes occur inside it (provided that this concept is regarded as a measure).
3. This term expresses the identity of such opposing concepts as good and evil, day and night, cold and heat, forms from them something one: "whole and not an integer, converging and divergent, agreement and disagreement, from all - one, from one - all" (Philosophy of Heraclitus - "The Teaching of the Logos").
4. The concept under consideration is not used in relation to individual things. Logos in the philosophy of Heraclitus - the designation of totality.

He expressed to them his idea of the unity, harmony and integrity of the world. Heraclitus identified the concept of "logos" with the Cosmos. The sensory component was generated by the emerging Cosmos from the fire, and the intellectual component by the Logos, in view of the fact that the most important thing that is fixed in worldly life and is reflected in the ideas of the cosmos is organization and world order that turns separately existing things into a single whole.

Thus, by summarizing all that includes the "doctrine of the Logos" of Heraclitus, we can say that this concept is a law that gives the world substantiality, systemic character and the opportunity for evolution.

Significance of the term in question

The Logos in Philosophy is just as compulsory as the laws of the polis, expressing the universality and totality of the mind. It consists of a fundamentally-ontological content that denotes the essence of the world order, and it can be comprehended only mentally, and in no way by sensory perception.

The movement from the myth to the logos is a movement from the totality of the object and the subject, from the indistinct delineation of the human "I" and "not I" to a clear understanding of this confrontation, as well as the difference between the object and the image. That is, this movement from the worldview to contemplation.

From myth to logos

There are a variety of concepts for this transition, from an outdated type of worldview to a fundamentally new one. However, the following are the basic ones:

Mythogenic theory

The essence of this concept is the assertion that the philosophy of antiquity is a consequence of the Greek mythology of the second generation, acting as their so-called rationalistic interpretation.

The myth here is regarded as an allegory, behind which were hidden true historical facts, real events, but highly distorted and misinterpreted. The metaphor had a generalizing function through which a person, through certain characteristics, denoted abstract concepts. Over time, it was required to rationalize the myth (translate the existing system of epithets and allegories into the language of categories and concepts).

So, we can say that philosophy is a mythology adapted to the corresponding epoch.

One of the variants of the concept under consideration is a symbolic theory that interprets myth as a single sense sense and image, backed by tradition and ritual.

Epistemological theory

At first glance, you might think that it is a counterbalance to the above. In essence, this concept is based on the assertion that philosophy does not have anything in common with mythology, because it has a different source. World outlook on the world was formed on the basis of scientific and theoretical knowledge and generalizations of real events. Philosophical thought evolved through knowledge, fundamentally opposed to fantastic beliefs and beliefs. In this regard, it was concluded that mythology can not be a prehistory of philosophy (I volume "History of Philosophy").

Gnoseogen-mythogenic theory

As already seen from the title, this concept crosses the first two radical theories. She argues that within the myth there are components of common sense, of many years of experience, and beyond it there are elements of science from different fields (medicine, mathematics, etc.) borrowed in the East.

Socioanthropomorphic (historical-psychological) theory

Its representative is a French anthropologist, historian and researcher Jean-Pierre Vernan ("The Origin of Ancient Greek Thought"). He explains the processes of being from the point of view of rationality by projecting them to everyday situations that occur, that is, the way of thinking is transformed: all cosmic phenomena have been understood through routine events, and not the pagan actions of the gods.

Thus, each concept is based on two concepts - myth and logos. Philosophy, so to speak, evolved from the first term to the second. As it became clear, there are many points of view regarding this transition.

The Doctrine of the Logos of Heraclitus

This is an example not only of ancient Greek materialism in the early period, but also of Greek dialectics.

According to Heraclitus, logos means what is peculiar to everything and everyone around, and also by means of which everything is controlled by everyone. Apparently, this is one of the very first of its formulations, where the idea of the first beginning is intertwined with the barely emerging idea of the total law governing all beings.

It contains the possibility of distinguishing between philosophy and physics, as well as isolating activities related to the study and description of nature. Of course, at that time Heraclitus perceived all three elements as one whole, united by the idea of the first beginning.

The philosophical experience of past years has shown that it can not be identified with either a single thing or an existing material element. And later it was established that the initial can not be correlated with matter in general, since practically all subsequent philosophers were asked about the possibility of uniting the human essence and the world as a whole, and in the narrower concept of spirit and body in the representative of the human race. At that time, it was required to find a principle that unites any body (including the human body) with inner content - the soul. Thus, these difficult searches for the universal unification of man and the world acquired, both within philosophy and throughout culture as a whole, very distinct outlines that gradually poured into the global problem of being.

Heraclitus was primarily interested in human thoughts, excitements and passions. Fire (invisible and dynamic) as the first principle was acceptable in the teachings of this philosopher because he was associated with his human soul. Thus, Heraclitus characterized animate nature. According to his teaching, in the human body the soul is represented by passions, reflections, sufferings, etc.

Considered the ancient Greek term within the framework of Christianity

In the Hellenistic period, the concept of the "logos" draws attention from the religious thought of the Mediterranean, which sought to syncretically combine the Greek and Eastern traditions.

An important result of these experiments is the teaching of the outstanding representative of Jewish Hellenism, Philo of Alexandria.

He believed that logos in philosophy is God's inner intention and reason for peace. In addition, he was still perceived by Philo as an intermediary between the "first God" - the creator of all things and the "third god" - nature (the creation of the Lord), which was called "the second god," "high priest," "only-begotten son of God."

This philosophy of Philo greatly influenced Christian theology: it was reflected in the teaching of the Gospel of John on the Logos ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (1: 1)), and also in the Apocalypse ( 19:13) they call Jesus the "Word of God".

In contrast to this concept, within the framework of Hellenistic philosophy (the emanation of the Absolute and the transformed form of its being in the lower worlds), in the Christian philosophy expressed in the Gospel by the second person of the Trinity (Jesus Christ), the logos means, firstly, the immediate presence of the Lord in the world, and in Second, syncretic unity with human nature ("And the Word became flesh," John, (1:14)).

German transcendentalism regarding the concept under consideration

In the philosophy of modern times, interest in the problematic of the Logos was replaced by problems of logic. However, within the framework of German transcendentalism, which was marked by interest, concreteness and historicity of spirit, other logic and the relationship of absolute and personal, a return to the previously considered philosophy of the Logos was discovered. In particular, Kant had a Christological text interpreting the John's logo from the point of view of its compatibility with the existing principle of reason and the relationship with the problem of delimitation of religion and practical reason.

The German philosopher Fichte, on the one hand, singles out the consistency of his teaching with the Gospel of John, and on the other hand, contrasts his Christianity (the "eternal" religion of Logos and knowledge) to Paul's Christianity, largely "distorting" the Revelation.

For Hegel, the Logos in philosophy is the Concept (one of the main elements of his logic). In connection with the fact that within the framework of the system of a given German philosopher it acts as a kind of maximum disclosure of the Absolute as an Idea inside and for itself, more precisely, an Idea that has overcome the division of the objective and subjective and has reached the form of freedom. Thus, its further development through natural otherness to the concreteness of the Absolute Spirit can be considered as a superempirical history of the Logos.

The concept under consideration in the framework of Russian religious philosophy

The term "logos" in the form of its current dictionary appears in the XIX-XX centuries. The general nature of the theme is set by the Russian thinker VS Soloviev, from the point of view of the "Alexandrian" context of the evangelical teaching that is characteristic of him ("Philosophical principles of integral knowledge" and "Reading about God-manhood").

To various interpretations of the concept "logos" quite often resorted to the famous philosophers of "all-unity" (Bulgakov, Karsavin, Florensky, Frank).

The Russian philosopher VF Ern proposes the non-Slavophile ideology of logism, presented in the introduction of the collection "The Struggle for the Logos" ("logos is a slogan"), which is opposed to the Hellenic-Christian Logos of Western rationalism.

The concept in question in the philosophy of the twentieth century

The theme of the Logos is also given considerable attention by the religious philosophers of the non-Turkish tradition (the concept of K. Raner, where man is the "hearer of the Word"), and representatives of the Protestant "dialectical theology" (Karl Barth).

Essential is the problematic of the concept under consideration, especially with regard to the Hellenic heritage, for hermeneutics ("Truth and Method" by Garamer).

The German philosopher M. Heidegger repeatedly in his last works returns to attempts to reinterpret the forgotten meaning of the ancient Greek logos - the "gathering-revealing" force.

Within the framework of poststructuralism, this term is compared with the rationalistic mythology of the West. So, for the method of deconstruction of Derrida, the main goal is to "neutralize" logocentrism, synonymous with metaphysics.

Modern philosophy in relation to this concept

Many philosophers of both New and Modern times, such as A. Ivakin, M. Heidegger and others, regard the term "logos" as deeply meaningful and polysemantic. It is treated as "word", "thought" ("word, speech, if they are sincere, are the same" thought ", but released outside, to freedom"). It is also often used such translation of the term as "meaning" (principle, basis, concept, reason) of a thing or event.

Some Russian philosophers idealist Logos use as a designation of a single organic knowledge, which is inherent in the balance of the heart and mind, the presence of intuition and analysis (PA Florensky, VF Ern).