Logos vs. Pathos — What's the Difference?

Logos (UK: , US: ; Ancient Greek: λόγος, romanized: lógos; from λέγω, légō, lit. ''I say'') is a term in Western philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, and religion derived from a Greek word variously meaning "ground", "plea", "opinion", "expectation", "word", "speech", "account", "reason", "proportion", and "discourse". It became a technical term in Western philosophy beginning with Heraclitus (c.  535 – c.  475 BC), who used the term for a principle of order and knowledge.Ancient Greek philosophers used the term in different ways.

Pathos (, US: ; plural: pathea or pathê; Greek: πάθος, for "suffering" or "experience" or "something that one undergoes," or "something that happens to one". In medicine it refers to a "failing," "illness", or "complaint.

The Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ.

A quality that evokes pity or sadness

(in Jungian psychology) the principle of reason and judgement, associated with the animus.

A quality, as of an experience or a work of art, that arouses feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow.

In pre-Socratic philosophy, the principle governing the cosmos, the source of this principle, or human reasoning about the cosmos.

The feeling, as of sympathy or pity, so aroused.

Among the Sophists, the topics of rational argument or the arguments themselves.

The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.

In Stoicism, the active, material, rational principle of the cosmos; nous. Identified with God, it is the source of all activity and generation and is the power of reason residing in the human soul.

(rhetoric) A writer or speaker's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions such as pity.

In biblical Judaism, the word of God, which itself has creative power and is God's medium of communication with the human race.

(literature) An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.

In Hellenistic Judaism, a hypostasis associated with divine wisdom.

In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.

(Christianity) In Saint John's Gospel, especially in the prologue (1:1-14), the creative word of God, which is itself God and incarnate in Jesus. Also called Word.

Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

(rhetoric) A form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker uses logic as the main argument.

That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality; as, the pathos of a picture, of a poem, or of a cry.

Alternative case form of Logos

The quality or character of those emotions, traits, or experiences which are personal, and therefore restricted and evanescent; transitory and idiosyncratic dispositions or feelings as distinguished from those which are universal and deep-seated in character; - opposed to ethos.

A word; reason; speech.

Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

The divine Word; Christ.

A quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow);

The divine word of God; the second person in the Trinity (incarnate in Jesus)

A feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others;

A style that has the power to evoke feelings