Philosophy

Abstract

Many introductory courses on ancient, or indeed modern, philosophy begin from the observation that the word ‘philosophy’ itself describes a ‘love of wisdom’. Christopher Moore's wide-ranging, original, and fascinating new book sets out to examine the value of that etymology. He argues persuasively that philosophos does not, in fact, originate as a label applied respectfully to pick out a ‘lover of wisdom’ for emulation. Rather, the term is appropriated and developed from its origins as a pejorative name applied to those perceived to be striving too hard and in the wrong way to achieve the status of sophos, a ‘sage-wannabe’ as Moore has it. As he is careful to emphasize, his history of the origins of philosophos and philosophia does not and need not coincide with the origin story of ‘philosophy’ as a certain kind of discipline involving a certain way of talking about specific questions. Nevertheless, by scrutinizing the origins of these terms and their application in the sixth and fifth centuries bce, Moore sets himself up to offer some further enlightening discussion of the fifth- and fourth-century development of the discipline of ‘philosophy’.