Author: LI Yi, Post-doc Fellow, School of Philosophy, Wuhan University
Abstract:
In The Phaedo, Plato mentions the “Flucht in die Logoi” (escape into Logos), which is important to later philosophers, such as Gadamer. Although the mission of philosophy is to speak, the indirect and subjective nature of human speech in relation to all things and their reality makes this “natural” task inexplicably awkward. It is necessary to make a wise distinction between dialectic, which can help deliver true knowledge, and rhetoric, which overflows with stale opinions; but one must provide a linguistic affirmation of the ineffable, unnamable and unknowable mystery of God, or of the Being. This is where the paradox lies - the action of speech contradicts the content of speech. This paper argues that the evangelical teachings of Christian theology, such as “God was the Word,” “the Word was made flesh” and “the theology of the cross,” bring a theological and anthropological guarantee to the Logos. These counteract the impact of irrational mysticism, which denies that language possesses any original validity. In effect, it elevated the status of human rational thought, then laid a foundation for the important ideas of the West such as Classical German Philosophy. Christian philosophy has thus been called by some scholars “the completion of ancient philosophy (Greek philosophy)”.
Keywords:
escape into Logos, language, Incarnation, mysterious speculation
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