Christopher Moore
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691195056
- eISBN:
- 9780691197425
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691195056.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This book provides a fresh account of the origins of the term philosophos or “philosopher” in ancient Greece. Tracing the evolution of the word's meaning over its first two centuries, the book shows ...
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This book provides a fresh account of the origins of the term philosophos or “philosopher” in ancient Greece. Tracing the evolution of the word's meaning over its first two centuries, the book shows how it first referred to aspiring political sages and advice-givers, then to avid conversationalists about virtue, and finally to investigators who focused on the scope and conditions of those conversations. Questioning the familiar view that philosophers from the beginning “loved wisdom” or merely “cultivated their intellect,” the book shows that they were instead mocked as laughably unrealistic for thinking that their incessant talking and study would earn them social status or political and moral authority. Taking a new approach to the history of early Greek philosophy, the book seeks to understand who were called philosophoi or “philosophers” and why, and how the use of and reflections on the word contributed to the rise of a discipline. The book demonstrates that a word that began in part as a wry reference to a far-flung political bloc came, hardly a century later, to mean a life of determined self-improvement based on research, reflection, and deliberation. Early philosophy dedicated itself to justifying its own dubious-seeming enterprise. And this original impulse to seek legitimacy holds novel implications for understanding the history of the discipline and its influence.Less
This book provides a fresh account of the origins of the term philosophos or “philosopher” in ancient Greece. Tracing the evolution of the word's meaning over its first two centuries, the book shows how it first referred to aspiring political sages and advice-givers, then to avid conversationalists about virtue, and finally to investigators who focused on the scope and conditions of those conversations. Questioning the familiar view that philosophers from the beginning “loved wisdom” or merely “cultivated their intellect,” the book shows that they were instead mocked as laughably unrealistic for thinking that their incessant talking and study would earn them social status or political and moral authority. Taking a new approach to the history of early Greek philosophy, the book seeks to understand who were called philosophoi or “philosophers” and why, and how the use of and reflections on the word contributed to the rise of a discipline. The book demonstrates that a word that began in part as a wry reference to a far-flung political bloc came, hardly a century later, to mean a life of determined self-improvement based on research, reflection, and deliberation. Early philosophy dedicated itself to justifying its own dubious-seeming enterprise. And this original impulse to seek legitimacy holds novel implications for understanding the history of the discipline and its influence.
Christopher Moore
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691195056
- eISBN:
- 9780691197425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691195056.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This introductory chapter presents a brief overview of the history of philosophia—the Greek name, and the discipline that it came to name. It shows that, beginning around 500 BCE, the coinage of a ...
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This introductory chapter presents a brief overview of the history of philosophia—the Greek name, and the discipline that it came to name. It shows that, beginning around 500 BCE, the coinage of a “love of wisdom” was met with a wry verbal slight. But a century and a half later, the term is revealed in the maturity of an institution that is continuous with today's departments of philosophy. This phenomenon—accommodating a name-calling name and consolidating a structured group around it—recurs through history, as the cases of the Quakers, Shakers, Freaks, and queer activists illustrate. A norm-policing name, at first distasteful, gets appropriated, facilitates a new and ennobling self-understanding, and then governs a productive and tight-knit social enterprise. The chapter argues that such is the origin of philosophia.Less
This introductory chapter presents a brief overview of the history of philosophia—the Greek name, and the discipline that it came to name. It shows that, beginning around 500 BCE, the coinage of a “love of wisdom” was met with a wry verbal slight. But a century and a half later, the term is revealed in the maturity of an institution that is continuous with today's departments of philosophy. This phenomenon—accommodating a name-calling name and consolidating a structured group around it—recurs through history, as the cases of the Quakers, Shakers, Freaks, and queer activists illustrate. A norm-policing name, at first distasteful, gets appropriated, facilitates a new and ennobling self-understanding, and then governs a productive and tight-knit social enterprise. The chapter argues that such is the origin of philosophia.
Christopher Moore
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691195056
- eISBN:
- 9780691197425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691195056.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter argues for the “lexical precondition” for Heraclides' story: the existence of the word philosophos at the time of Pythagoras or at least in the period of the early Pythagorean ...
More
This chapter argues for the “lexical precondition” for Heraclides' story: the existence of the word philosophos at the time of Pythagoras or at least in the period of the early Pythagorean generations. The evidence is a fragment from Heraclitus, quoted by Clement of Alexandria: “philosophical men really quite ought to be researchers into much.” The chapter first argues that there is no reason to doubt Clement's accuracy of quotation for either source-critical or epistemological reasons. It shows, second, that while Heraclitus's use does not support the “explanations” of philosophos found in the Pythagoras stories, it in fact supports the view that the stories imply: that the term was applied, and perhaps with pejorative implication, to the Pythagoreans. Both positions have had their proponents in earlier scholarship, but with a full defense of those positions the chapter reveals their centrality not just for Heraclitean epistemology but for the history of philosophia.Less
This chapter argues for the “lexical precondition” for Heraclides' story: the existence of the word philosophos at the time of Pythagoras or at least in the period of the early Pythagorean generations. The evidence is a fragment from Heraclitus, quoted by Clement of Alexandria: “philosophical men really quite ought to be researchers into much.” The chapter first argues that there is no reason to doubt Clement's accuracy of quotation for either source-critical or epistemological reasons. It shows, second, that while Heraclitus's use does not support the “explanations” of philosophos found in the Pythagoras stories, it in fact supports the view that the stories imply: that the term was applied, and perhaps with pejorative implication, to the Pythagoreans. Both positions have had their proponents in earlier scholarship, but with a full defense of those positions the chapter reveals their centrality not just for Heraclitean epistemology but for the history of philosophia.
