Philosophy: Love of Wisdom, or Wisdom of Love?
This came up in a different discussion.
The term 'philosophy' is often said to "literally" translate into 'love of wisdom'.
In fact, it literally translates into 'knowledge of love'.
After all, when we describe a love of some subject, we use the word 'philia' or 'phile':
- hemophile
- xenophile
- audiophile
etc.
When we describe knowledge of some subject, we use the word 'sophy':
- cosmosophy
- anthrosophy
- theosophy
etc.
Philia = Love of
Sophy = Knowledge of
Philosophy = Knowledge of Love
Discuss.
The term 'philosophy' is often said to "literally" translate into 'love of wisdom'.
In fact, it literally translates into 'knowledge of love'.
After all, when we describe a love of some subject, we use the word 'philia' or 'phile':
- hemophile
- xenophile
- audiophile
etc.
When we describe knowledge of some subject, we use the word 'sophy':
- cosmosophy
- anthrosophy
- theosophy
etc.
Philia = Love of
Sophy = Knowledge of
Philosophy = Knowledge of Love
Discuss.
Comments (13)
A body of belief or theory about love.
A teaching about love.
Better?
PS:
Anthrosophy:
(archaic, as used before Rudolf Steiner) Knowledge or understanding of human nature.
Quoting tim wood
This isn't about what I like. It's about the fact that, linguistically, philosophy (or ?????????) does not translate into 'lover of wisdom', but into 'wisdom of love'. To be more exact, 'love' in the sense of 'brotherly love' (?????), rather than erotic love (????) (also weird, considering modern usage).
Both had a profound meaning in Greek wisdom literature (which is where the word '?????????' originates, as far as we know), for example in Plato. 'Brotherly love' or 'compassion' also plays a central role in Buddhism. Ancient Greek philosophy and Buddhism both originate roughly from the same time period, the 6th century BC. This seems significant somehow.
At any rate, I'm not familiar with the English linguistical terms, but it seems the 'subject' and the 'adjective' have been swapped around for no apparent reason.
This is the important point.
Consider also “philanthropy”, which is “love of man”, not “man(liness?) of love”.
Or “philately”, which is “love of stamps”*, not “stamps of love”.
* “atelos” is not literally the Greek word for “stamp” but is apparently the closest idiomatic translation.
Honestly, considering Aristotle never seemed to truly 'get' the concepts of his teacher Plato, I'm not sure if he's the one to refer to in this context. I've heard it argued (though the source eludes me) that while western philosophy often claims Greek philosophy as its forebear, it would be more accurate to label Aristotle as such (western philosophy being essentially Aristotelean, rather than Greek), and western philosophy never seemed to quite 'get' Plato either.
Quoting tim wood
Fair.
Quoting tim wood
Fair also. Though I'd say that ascribing the apparent disconnect between the wording and the meaning of the word 'philosophy' to randomness is also not very convincing.
This word is of modern origin, thus of little use.
Quoting Pfhorrest
A fair example, but I am not convinced.
If you can share a word that ends with -sophy, that would be translated in a way akin to "x of knowledge" rather than "knowledge of x", I will seriously reconsider my position.
Misosophy and phobosophy, though both are probably coined by analogy with philosophy.
Possibly sciosophy, which seems to mean "shadow knowledge", not "knowledge of shadows".
But look also at the other side of the equation, other words beginning with "philo-" that mean "love of..." something, not something "...of love":
Philodemic, people-loving.
Philography, love of writing.
Philogyny, love of women.
Philomuse, a lover of the muses.
Philomusical, music-loving.
Philolexian, discourse-loving.
Philomathy, love of learning.
Philopolemic, war-loving.
Philoprogenitive, offspring-loving.
Philoxeny, love of strangers.
Philozoic, animal-loving.
I had not considered this, and it is compelling.
I can rest easy now!
In the ancient world, Wisdom, Sophia, was personified as a beautiful maiden. Of course, once Christianity came along, then Sophia couldn't be referred to as a 'goddess', but that's pretty well what she was. There are still beautiful sculptures of Sophia as 'wisdom incarnate', not to forget the Hagia Sophia of Istanbul, which is said to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.
Sophia has to be 'seduced' as it were, rather than taken by force - elusive, gentle, never obvious, often unstated.
Interestingly, Sophia has an almost exact counterpart in Eastern iconography, namely, the Goddess Prajñ?p?ramit?, who is depicted in some of the most beautiful statuary of the Buddhist tradition:
Scholar of Buddhism, Edward Conze, wrote a paper on the convergences of Sophia and Prajñ?p?ramit?.