Abstract:

"Logos: The Ultimate Source of Law"

All through the ages across the spectrum of cultures and worlds there has been a relentless quest for the ultimate ground or principle of reality, of meaning, of truth, of reason, of experience, of ethics and value. Diverse cultures have from the dawn of their philosophical and religious traditions proceeded in the intuition that there must be an ultimate First Principle or originating foundation whence all that appears in the world and in experience issues forth.

Certain African cultures gravitated to the primal "Nommo" or universal name or word which orders all nature. Deep in the Chinese culture is the clarification of the Tao, the infinite original name which is beyond all names and forms and yet is the direct source of all that appears. At the heart of Hindu culture is the intuition that all reality arises from the primal infinite symbol, Aum, which is beyond the thought patterns of everyday thought and language. The Buddhist traditions press further to teach that the originating source of all form is radically "empty" – Sunyata (Zero–ness) and this is found to be the deep structure of the Dharma or Universal Law which orders all nature and gives form to thought and language and experience.

And in the birth of the European traditions in the Pre–Socratic and Socratic Greek origins it is found that the primal Logos or Word is the origin of rational light, the source of order and form and regularities. Plato recognized that the ultimate source of all forms and laws is found in Goodness, the primal infinite form of all forms. And certainly in ths Judeo–Christian traditions it is recognized that the primal name, Yahweh, is infinitely one and the source of all that exists. This Primal Word is also called "Logos" and it is seen that in the being of Christ this Logos becomes flesh. Jesus is said to embody the living law. And so on.

It is of course not accidental that the great world cultures in their religious and philosophical origins have gravitated to a primal first principle. The common source of this persistent global intuition is the recognition that without such a first principle there could be no order, no form, no regularity, no intelligibility to experience and world. And it becomes obvious in diverse experiments in first philosophy that this Primal Word or Presence must be infinite in scope and power and hence infinitely unifying and the very source of all diversity and individuality and multiplicity. It is an elementary point in the deepest meditations on "what is first" that it must be One and this One must be the common source of all the diversity that appears. Thus it is in the Infinite Power of this primal principle that all Unity, Order, Form, Regularity, Law, Multiplicity, Individuality, Diversity...are to be found. Nothing can appear that is not under the sway and jurisdiction of this primal force.

Nevertheless, in the global evolution of cultures, certain localizing or tribalizing forces have chronically persisted to preempt, repress, or eclipse the emergence of a global or universal name for this ultimate source of all realities. And it becomes vital at this stage in the globalization of cultures that we "nominate" a common Name for the primal principle to help focus our deepest attention to the global origin, nature and scope of the diverse forms of order, regularity, form, pattern or law in the human condition.

We have proposed "Logos" as a candidate for this global first principle and our thesis is that Logos is the ultimate source of all laws, patterns, forms, regularities, be these "natural" or constructed through human convention. Thus, the laws of nature, the ontological laws of existence or world, the laws of logic, the principles of mathematics, the laws of economic and political realities, various formulations of moral law, and the juridical systems of cultures all have their source in the rational power of Logos. Apart from the unifying and ordering power of Logos the very idea of "law" or "principle" or "form" would be unintelligible.

When we enter this Logos tradition and rise to a global perspective we are able to see deeper patterns and dynamics in the evolution of cultures. One remarkable disclosure across cultures and worlds is that humanity has been in a profound and painful transformation from an egocentric pattern of thought and culture making to a more mature form of life that is dialogical and centered in the Logos. A striking consensus among the great moral teachers is that egocentric culture inherently produces fragmentation and polarizations of all sorts that lead to violence and other human pathologies. In their deep diagnosis of the human condition they find that when individuals and communities mature rationally anbd morally beyond these egocentric habits of world making and self–transform into dialogical patterns of life centered in the unified field of Logos humans flourish.

It is clear, for example, in the case of Buddhaπs teaching that this unified field of Logos wherein all things co–arise in a dynamic interactive process is the lawlike structure of Dharma. When humans conduct their minds in accord with this primal Law of reality, which unites the laws of nature and moral and rational law, we flourish. When the laws we live by are well grounded in this lawlike force we realize well being. This insight may be seen in the life and teachings of Jesus, the Logos made Flesh, the living embodiment of this Law of Love and Compassion. And so on.

What emerges then in this unfolding drama of Logos in history and cultural evolution is that all the great advances in culture at their core have been this paradigm shift from egocentric ways of being to the more awakened dialogical patterns of living in conformity with the lawlike power of Logos. Here it is found that egocentric living eclipses, represses, denies and rejects the fundamental field of Logos. It proceeds in breach of the Law and uses the individual and collective ego–will to shapes its laws and conventions of life. And of course as long as cultures build their experience and worlds on the desires, needs, interests and intentions of egocentric will this will always result in polarizations, alienation, loss of common ground and violence.

In this narrative of Logos it becomes evident that egocentric culture making invariably leads to twin or polar forms of tyranny. There has been a recurrent pattern of history that when egocentric cultures affirm "universal law and unity" this has typically resulted in the violent reduction of Otherness and Difference. But it is also evident that when egocentric cultures deny "universal law and unity" this too produces tribalization and balcanization, the loss of common ground and universal norms. Indeed, it is evident in contemporary cultures that both forms of the failure of dialogue and true respect for Otherness are in full play at the same time.

So our question here is – what is the ultimate source of law: force or justice? And in our narrative of Logos the direction of an answer begins to emerge. To the degree that cultures base their lives and forge their laws within their egocentric perspectives and worldviews, and not in the Logos, diverse juridical cultures will remain deeply polarized and estranged. In that case their laws get their power and authority from the egocentric conventions that arise from the collective will. And different juridical cultures will construct and empower different systems of law embedded in their respective worldviews. Of course any collection of cultures may unite in common cause to legislate shared conventions and regulations. This is ratified by the power of their votes, by their wills. But of course this does not mean that such laws are grounded in the universal normative force of the Logos.

We see here two profoundly different paradigms of "law" and "force" and "justice." The teachers of Logos have seen that the legal power of Logos is the greatest force, it is the force of truth and justice grounded in the universal Law of Love. Gandhi and King are in this tradition. Gandhi saw in his deep insights into Ahimsa or Nonviolence that the Force of Truth and Justice is always greater than the various forms of force that may arise from egocentric regimes. So the real question is not whether the ultimate source of "law" is "force" vs "justice", for the legal force of Logos, the power of global justice, is a force to recon with. The question rather is which "law", which "force", which "justice?"

In the reflections that follow we shall attempt to clear the way to a re–framing, or perhaps a revized understanding, of the question before us. We suggest that as we humans make our laws, we are always situated in our worldviews and perspectives, always under our interpretations and judgments. For this reason the technology of Deep Dailogue is vital for bringing the human communities and juridical cultures into the commom ground of Logos. It is in and through the authentic praxis of Deep Dialogue that global communities may negotiate towards a true consensus of shaping laws that are grounded in the objective common ground and power of Logos. It is in this context that any universal or global norms may be found that have universal jurisdiction and authority over the spectrum of cultures and ideologies. It is in this universal, global, dialogical and rational power of Logos that we find the consensus potential for shaping just international and intercultural laws.

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