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Concept

Logos

Word, reason or account: for the Stoics the divine reason that orders the cosmos, and for Christians the Word of God.
Ancient Greek, Stoicism
logos λόγος

Definition

Logos is a Greek word of many meanings: word, speech, account, reason, proportion. Heraclitus, around 500 BCE, used it for the order that governs all things and is common to all, which most people fail to grasp; listening to it, he said, one learns that all things are one.

The Stoics made the logos the centre of their physics. It is the active, rational principle that pervades and shapes passive matter, and is identical with God, nature and fate. It contains the “seminal reasons” of all things, from which they develop, and the human mind is a portion of it. To live according to reason is therefore to live in agreement with the cosmos.

Philo of Alexandria made the Logos the intermediary between God and the world, and the Gospel of John opens by identifying the Logos, the Word, with God and with Christ. Christian theologians developed the idea further; Maximus the Confessor taught that the reasons (logoi) of all creatures are contained in the one Logos. Chinese translations of John’s Gospel render Logos with Dao, inviting a long comparison between the two.

In the traditions

Stoicism

The divine reason pervading the cosmos, identical with God and nature, of which each mind is a part.

Christian Mysticism

The Word of God, made flesh in Christ, in whom the reasons of all creatures are contained.

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Cite this entry
Chicago (bibliography)

“Logos.” Concept. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/logos.

Chicago (note)

“Logos,” concept, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/logos.

MLA

“Logos.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/logos.

BibTeX
@misc{concepts-logos,
  title = {{Logos}},
  howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society},
  note = {Concept. Last modified November 7, 2026},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/concepts/logos}
}

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