Abstract

What does a philosophos do and what is a philosophos anyway? Christopher Moore explores these questions in his intriguing book, examining the history of the word philosophos and considering the development of the discipline that came to be known as philosophia. Moore's account "begins around 500 BCE with the coinage not of a self-lauding 'love of wisdom' but with a wry verbal slight, and concludes a century and a half later, in the maturity of an institution that is continuous with today's departments of philosophy". The story moves between analysis of the word philosophos, comparing it and its history with that of other phil- compounds, and a wide-ranging discussion of the activities of those to whom the name...