GENIUS FORUMS

Westerners call it "philosophy" which is "love of wisdom" in Greek. But what did or do Easterners call philosophy? They couldn't have called it "love of wisdom", unless they did so by sheer chance or something.

The indian term for philosophy is Darshan Shastra.
Darshan: Vision
Shastra: Knowledge
Or the knowledge of vision

A better (contextual) translation is "the art of seeing."

Interesting though that the art of seeing is such a nice and alive name for philosophy, much better than "love of wisdom". Love of wisdom seems like one would be content with intelligent quotes and witty observations, while the other one indicates a more active participation.

What would "the art of seeing" be in Greek? or Latin?

I'm tired of the word "philosophy", but I'm not tired of the West.

I see wisdom in English as a merge of "wise" (way, method, nature) and "dom" (master). I've no idea if this is murdering etymology in any way but it does come close enough to Tao and Lao Tzu (old master). This might be another murder, of the Ancient Chinese language, but it works for me.

In Hebrew it's chokmah (????) and is based on being skilled. In Buddhism the Bodhisattva has skill-in-means or upaya-kausalya.

The Greek sophia however comes from sophos which also refers to being skilled or learned. An interested related word is saphês meaning "clear, plain, distinct".

...the contrast is between one whose knowledge is partial and limited [emphasis added] and one who is clairvoyant (the speaker)".

Philosophical texts (where one might expect an interest in the precise definition and/or use of terms) also support a meaning of saphês as "complete", with Aristotle, De Anima, 413a12 being an especially illuminating example.

From The Etymology and Meaning of Greek Sapha "Completely, Cleanly"

Trevor Salyzyn wrote:What would "the art of seeing" be in Greek? or Latin?

The Greek called the seer: mantis. Like the praying insect and that's no coincidence.

diebert: what's the verb?

Had to look that up. The completest summary I found was this:

In addition, the word is directly related to the suffix -mancy (as in necromancy). The Greek mantis is from the verb mainesthai, meaning "to be inspired", which is in turn related to menos, "passion, spirit." This is the source of our word mania. All of these forms derive from the Proto-Indo-European *men-, "to think, to have one's mind aroused, rage, be furious", which is the root of our English word mind.

Mantis seems also linked with the Sanskrit mantra (counsel, prayer, hymn).

Looking at prefixes, I could create some interesting things with the -mancy suffix.

For instance, "telemancy" (divination from afar?) seems a perfect description of the failures of Academic philosophy (the desire to keep oneself at a distance from the thoughts); perhaps calling it "telemancy" is suitable.

automancy or intramancy (self and within, respectively) could be a contrast. Hmmm... I'll need to think on this.

There are lots of Greek words for "seeing." Blepein ("to see") and scopein ("to examine"; as in "microscope" etc.) and "horein" ("to look at") are common ones. The word for "clear" is "delos," as in "psychedelic" ("mind-clearer").

The Greek word for "truth" is "aletheia," the "a-" being privative (as in "atheism") and "-lethe" meaning "concealedness" or "forgetfulness." Finding the truth would be like lifting a veil, i.e. seeing clearly. Heidegger makes a big deal out of this.

aletheiomancer sounds cooler than philosopher, I'll grant you that

maestro wrote:The indian term for philosophy is Darshan Shastra.
Darshan: Vision
Shastra: Knowledge
Or the knowledge of vision

I think that's a very fitting name.

A better (contextual) translation is "the art of seeing."

Interesting though that the art of seeing is such a nice and alive name for philosophy, much better than "love of wisdom". Love of wisdom seems like one would be content with intelligent quotes and witty observations, while the other one indicates a more active participation.

Well, I think that's mostly because "wisdom" is such a muddy word with no real referent for most people. Most people think of it as knowledge derived from personal experience or, like you said, quotes from Ben Franklin or something.