Philosophical Writings

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Academy of Philosophy

Page 40

Logos In Philosophy. Religion and Science
unifying principle of the world." It is a common term in ancient philosophy and theology "expressing an idea of immanent reason in the world, under various modifications."6 Though the idea of Logos, in one form or the other, is reflected in Indian, Egyptian and Persian system of thought, “it was developed mainly in Hellenic and Hebrew philosdphy." Before we examine the meaning and development of this concept let us note Logos in its clear meaning as conceived and used by some of the philosophers.
The Greek Heraclitus held that “the world is animated and kept in order by Fire - this fire is the Logos. It is the power of order in the world and the power itself. It thus became the unifying feature of the Heraclitean system.” Heraclitus spoke of Logos in the sense "when he said that everything proceeds according to Logos, which is eternal, universal and essential”, the idealists (Hegel and others) wrongly regarded the Logos of Heraclitus as universal reason. Plato and Aristotle understood Logos as "a Law of being and principle of Logic.”10 Amongst the Stoics the term"Logos, denoted the law of physical and spiritual worlds in so far as they merged in a pantheistic unity."1 "To them God was immanent in the world, its vitalizing force, and God as the Law guiding the universe they called Logos; with the additional idea that all things develop from this force, it is called spermaticos Logos. 12 Philo of the Judaic-Alexandrian school (1st Cent. A. D.) developed the doctrine of Logos as "a creative divine force (reason) acting as mediator between God and the created world and man."13 He hit upon the Logos as” a union between the systems, retaining qualities of Stoic-logos and the Hebrew Logos."14 We find Logos' in a much restricted form in the system of emanations of Neoplatonism, in which “Logos was identified with Christ....Hegel in his philosophy described Logos as an absolute concept."15 In oriental philosophy concepts analogous to Logos are Tao and in a certain sense Rta and / or Dharma.
The tern Logos, in our final conclusion, means a law which is eternal and universal. But at the same time the word Logos has