Calling Philosophers Names: On the Origin of a Discipline

437 Pages·2020·7.129 MB·English

by  Christopher Moore

C A L L I N G
P H IL O S O P H E R S
N A M E S

C A L L I N G
P H IL O SO P H E R S
N A M E S
On the Origin of a Discipline
CHR ISTOPHER MOOR E
PRINCE TON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Prince ton and Oxford
Copyright © 2020 by Princet on University Press
Published by Prince ton University Press
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LCCN 2019935934
ISBN 9780691195056
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παρέχω ἐμαυτὸν ἐρωτᾶν, καὶ ἐάν τις βούληται ἀποκρινόμενος
ἀκούειν ὧν ἂν λέγω.

Surely this was a touch of fine philosophy; though no doubt he had never heard t here
was such a thing as that. But, perhaps, to be true phil os o phers, we mortals should
not be conscious of so living or so striving. So soon as I hear that such or such a man
gives himself out for a phil os o pher, I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old w oman,
he must have “broken his digester.”
— MELVILLE, MOBY- DICK
Why do I wish to call our pres ent activity philosophy, when we also call Plato’s
activity philosophy? Perhaps b ecause of a certain analogy between them, or perhaps
because of the continuous development of the subject. Or the new activity may take
the place of the old b ecause it removes m ental discomforts the old was supposed to.
— WITTGENSTEIN

CONTENTS
Acknowle dgments xi
Selected Abbreviations and Editions xiii
Map of Places Mentioned xx–xxi
CHAPTER 1 Introduction: The Origins of Philosophia 1
ORIGINS
CHAPTER 2 Heraclitus against the Philosophoi 37
CHAPTER 3 What Philosophos Could Have Meant: A Lexical Account 66
CHAPTER 4 Pythagoreans as Philosophoi 107
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 5 Fifth- Century Philosophoi 127
CHAPTER 6 Socrates’s Prosecution as Philosophos 157
CHAPTER 7 Non- Academic Philosophia 194
ACADE MY
CHAPTER 8 Plato’s Saving of the Appearances 221
CHAPTER 9 Aristotle’s Historiography of Philosophia 260
CHAPTER 10 Ambivalence about Philosophia beyond the Discipline 288
EPILOGUE Con temporary Philosophy and the History of the Discipline 317
Appendix: Versions of the Pythagoras Story 321
Classical Uses of Philosoph- Discussed in This Book 331
Phil- Prefixed Words Appearing in This Book 335
Bibliography 337
Index 371
Index Locorum 393