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What is Stoic Logos and Why is it Important?
On the Pursuit of Truth and the Importance of Dialogue in a Divided World
Logos is a very abstract and difficult idea to understand. It’s present in many ancient philosophies as well as Christianity. One of the confusing aspects is the fact that the definition changes to some degree depending on which philosophy you are talking about. Despite its complexity (or perhaps because of it), I think an understanding of what Logos is is crucial for the practicing of Stoicism, as it is the spirit of the entire philosophy. So what is Logos, and why is it a crucial element of Stoic philosophy?
The History of Logos
The word Logos dates back to classical Greece. It translates to something like “word, thought, principle, or speech”. I’ll get into this more later, but I think that this translation is perhaps the simplest way of understanding the concept.
““To live with the gods.” And to do that is to show them that your soul accepts what it is given and does what the spirit requires — the spirit God gave each of us to lead and guide us, a fragment of himself. Which is our mind, our logos.”
