International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Logos (plural logoi ) is a polysemous Greek term, which generally has been used in rhetoric to refer to the component of persuasion grounded in logic or reason as opposed to that based on emotion or character, although these distinctions are not entirely unproblematic. The Greek noun logos derives from the verb legô (to speak), and has many derivatives and cognates in several Indo-European languages. Logos is found infrequently in Homer (eighth century bce ), coming into wide usage only in the prose writers of the sixth century, with the primary meaning of a “speech” or “tale.” It quickly became a common Greek term, with many meanings, including “word,” “story,” “speech,” “reputation,” “ratio,” “book-keeping tally,” “rumor,” “rule,” “explanation,” “argument,” and “reason.” Logos tends to signify uttered thought, rather than specific words; barbarians and Greeks are described as using different types of sound ( phônê ) or word ( rhêma ) to express the same logos . In its senses as both reason and speech, logos was used in ancient Greek to refer to that which distinguished humans from beasts. In much of Greek thought, rationality and speech were considered interdependent. As long prose compositions were termed logoi , prose writers, including historians and those employed in the lucrative, if moderately disreputable, profession of ghost-writing speeches for law courts, ... log in or subscribe to read full text