Peter Jones

Greta and the gap between words and actions

[Getty Images] 
issue 20 November 2021

Greta Thunberg and her supporters were loud in protest at COP26, but one wonders to what end. They demanded deeds, not words, but words were all they had to offer, except when they were so devoutly letting down the tyres of SUVs.

Ancient Greeks were extremely interested in the distinction between word (logos, cf. our ‘-logy’) and deed (ergon, cf. our ‘energy’). In one branch of usage, logos was seen in opposition to ergon. The distinction was that logos was merely verbal and therefore a potentially deceptive representation of reality, while ergon was the real thing, reality itself, a fact. One Greek myth suggested that the goddess ‘Conflict’ was responsible for such misuse of logos, because she was the source of ‘quarrels, lies and words with double meanings’.

Another usage of logos was emphasised by the philosopher Gorgias.

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