"discourse." But just what does discourse have to do with force. such that there comes to be with reference to λόγος an essential division of δυνάμεις?
We treated the original meaning of λόγος at the very beginning of this lecture. Λέγειν: to glean, to harvest, to gather, to add one to the other, and so to place the one in relation to the other, and thus to posit this relationship itself. Λόγος: the relation, the relationship. The relationship is what holds together that which stands within it. The unity of this together prevails over and rules the relation of what holds itself in that relation. Λόγος means therefore rule, law, yet not as something which is suspended somewhere above what is ruled, but rather as that which is itself the relationship: the inner jointure and order of the being which stand in relation. Λόγος is the ruling structure, the gathering of those beings related among themselves.
Such a gathering, which now gathers up, makes accessible, and holds ready the relations of the related, and with this the related itself and thus individual beings, and so at the same time lets them be mastered, this is the structure we call "language," speaking; but not understood as vocalizing, rather in the sense of a speaking that says something, means something: to talk of or about something to someone or for someone. Λόγος is discourse, the gathering laying open, unifying making something known [Kundmachen]; and indeed above all in the broad sense which also includes pleading, making a request, praying, questioning, wishing, commanding, and the like. One mode of discourse understood in such a broad sense is the simple assertion [Aus-sage] about something, whereby discourse accomplishes this: It makes known in an emphatic sense that of which and about which the discourse is, and simply lets it be seen in itself. But questioning too is a making known in the sense of exploring [Er-kunden]; prayer is a making known in the sense of witnessing and attesting to, and likewise with the wish, or the refusal as when we decline. deny. and so on. Public discourse is also an announcing [Ankündigung]. proclaiming [Verkünden]. and declaring [Künden]. Λόγος is thus discourse in the utterly broad sense of the manifold making known and giving notice [Kundgeben]—"conversance" [Kundschaft].
The current translations of λόγος as "reason." "judgment. .. and