Logos

In Platonic philosophy, the lógos stands at the origin of the world, containing within itself the eternal and archetypal ideas of all things.
In Christianity, the Logos is the Word of God, “through whom all things were made” (Jn 1:1; Ps 33:9) and who “dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).

More precisely

The Greek term lógos has an exceptionally broad semantic range:
— word, speech
— reason, intellect
— principle, measure, proportion
— law, order

Hence its central role in the history of thought.

In Platonism, the lógos is the intelligible mediation between the supreme Principle and the world.
It orders multiplicity according to the Ideas, allowing the cosmos to participate in transcendent rationality. It is thus the formal principle structuring reality and rendering it intelligible.

Among the Stoics, the lógos is the rational principle immanent in the world, likened to a subtle fire permeating the whole of reality. The cosmos is a living being animated by the lógos spermatikós, the “seminal reason” that contains the seeds of future forms.

In Christian thought, the Logos is identified with the Son (Jn 1:1–18).
He is not merely the expression of divine thought, but the subsistent Word, co-eternal with the Father.
The world is created through Him and in Him; He is the principle of the world’s intelligibility and ontological consistency.
The Incarnation (Jn 1:14) reveals the descent of the Logos into human nature, assuming and transfiguring creation.

Patristic authors (Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen) speak of the Logos universal, present as “seeds of the Word” in pre-Christian wisdom traditions.

Metaphysically, the Logos is the formal principle:
— mediation
— intellect
— measure

It binds the One to multiplicity and makes knowledge possible —
knowledge of meaning, of being, of truth.

Hierarchically, the Logos stands between the supreme Unity and the manifested world, functioning as exemplary cause and intelligible norm.

see the article “Reason and intelligence, the two sides of the mind“, first section.

For further reading

• Plato, Timaeus — On the Demiurge and intelligible models.
• Aristotle, Metaphysics — On intelligible reason and formal causes.
• Stoic fragments — On the lógos spermatikós as immanent rational principle.
• Philo of Alexandria, On the Creation of the World — On the Logos as mediator between God and creation.
• Gospel of John 1:1–18 — On the Logos as creative and incarnate Word.
• Justin Martyr, Apologies — On the “seeds of the Word” among the nations.
• Origen, Contra Celsum — On the universal Logos and revelation.
• Pseudo-Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy — On procession, light, and intelligible mediation.
• Bruno Bérard, Metaphysics for Everyone (Angelico Press); Métaphysique pour tous (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2022) ; it. Sui sentieri della metafisica ; es. ¿Qué es la metafísica? ; de. Was ist Metaphysik? — On the Logos, its metaphysical scope, and its relationship to intelligence.