Eco, the root of the word economics, and ecology, is of Greek origin, oikos, and translates into English as “house.” Logos, as you may recall from a previous post, is “the word by which the inward thought is expressed; the inward thought itself.”
What is “house?”
Well, it’s a shape with a form and a function; it’s a structure, a dwelling, a shelter. There are little houses, and big houses. There are one roomed houses, and multi-roomed houses. There are houses with no yard, small yards, big yards, and huge yards.
Houses are generally inhabited.
A beehive is a house. The yard extends for miles.
A nest is a house. The yard extends beyond counties and even state lines.
The human nest, the human hive, the human house has many rooms and yards…..
Logos is what Psyche attributes to “house.” For most, “house” is the four walls holding up a celing which covers 2 bedrooms, a bath, living room and kitchen. House may or may not include the yard. It certainly does not include the neighborhood. “My House” is not the same as “my neighborhood; but it could be, just a larger version. Some old cultures use languages that don’t make distinctions between my house and your house, or their house….the community itself is the house.
Because a house, at whichever level you want to think about it, is likely inhabited, there is an inherent need for organization and management. The more inhabitants, the more complex the interactions and interdependencies. The modern science of ecology is about the organization and management of interactions and interdependencies within adaptive systems. Its a complicated science. A nuclear house hold of two parents and three children is an ecological system and often already too complicated; the thought of managing an ecological system, i.e., a “house,” which encompasses a community…..or even a state, a nation, a continent, a planet….a solar system, or any ecosphere, can be overwhelming.
Eco Logos.
The meanings ascribed to house.
