Tradition

Logocentrism

Overview

Logocentrism is a term coined by the German philosopher Ludwig Klages in the early 1900s. It refers to the tradition of Western science and philosophy that regards words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality. It holds the logos as epistemologically superior and that there is an original, irreducible object which the logos represent. According to logocentrism, the logos is the ideal representation of the Platonic ideal.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Philosophers who discussed Logocentrism

• Hélène Cixous
• Ludwig Klages
• Jacques Derrida

Related ideas

• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Ferdinand de Saussure
• Course in General Linguistics
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Roland Barthes
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Post-structuralism
• Sigmund Freud
• Structuralism
• Ludwig Klages
• Aristotle
• Logos
• Martin Heidegger
• Jacques Derrida

Place in the tradition

Part of Deconstruction.

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