The Irresistible Rise of an Untranslatable Greek Word: lógos

Abstract

The term lógos was the object of disproportionate growth since philosophers discovered its richness, and its many transfigurations, which makes it impossible to translate it in a univocal way. Already in Heraclitus its meaning is multiple, and, a century later, Plato uses it two thousand four hundred and eighty-three times. This disproportionate growth is explained: both the expression (written or oral) of thought, which is the discourse, already present in Heraclitus, as the relationship between notions, which is the reasoning, procedure introduced by Parmenides, are the two nuances that will monopolize logics from Plato, emerged naturally from its root (speech unites words; reasoning, arguments). Aristotle will make lógos, with the meaning of "speech", the essence of the human being, and finally, with stoicism, the irresistible ascension of the notion will culminate in its meaning of reason.