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[1] Philosophical [German version] A. Term The Greek noun lógos (λόγος) is derived from the verb légein, ‘say’. Greek philosophers made extensive use of it in a wide range of meanings: what has been said, word, assertion, definition, interpretation, explanation, reason, criterion, proportion, relation, argument, rational discourse. Ierodiakonou, Katerina (Oxford) [German version] B. Pre-Socratics Attempts to trace the use of the word in detail have proved to be unsuccessful. It is, however, evident that logos was already being used by the Pre-Socratics, chiefly in re…

[German version] A. Definition The theory of valid conclusions, developed by Greek philosophers as a result of their interest in all kinds of argumentation, not only in philosophy but also in mathematics and politics and before the courts. The first technical term for what we today call logic, the word ‘dialectics’ (διαλεκτικὴ sc. τέχνη; dialektikḗ sc. téchnē), was used by Aristotle [6]. The term logic in the sense of ‘theory of correct argumentation’ is first encountered in antiquity in the Aristotelian commentator Alexander [26] of Aphrodisias (A…