Where did the word "philosopher" come from — and who got to decide what it meant? In Episode 8, Part 1 of Notions of Progress, we trace the moment Plato took a word that had begun as a mocking label and transformed it into an institutional claim. Prof. Christopher Moore's Calling Philosophers Names (Princeton, 2020) shows us how the coining of philosophos was not a neutral act of description but a polemical move — one that drew a sharp line between those who merely acquired knowledge and those who pursued wisdom as a lifelong orientation. Drawing on three of Plato's dialogues — the Meno, the Phaedrus, and the Gorgias — we ask what it meant to found a school on that claim, and what that founding bet risked.

This is the first of three episodes tracing the founding of the Academy — from the naming of philosophy in Episode 8, through the institution's mechanics in Episode 9, to Aristotle's departure and the first test of the founding bet in Episode 10.

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KEY TOPICS COVERED

- The origins of philosophos — where the word came from and why its history matters
- How Plato transformed a mocking label into an institutional claim about progress
- Vertical vs. horizontal cumulativity: the Sophist model of breadth vs. Plato's model of depth
- The Meno, Phaedrus, and Gorgias as three pillars of Plato's case
- What the Academy's founding bet was — and what it risked from the start

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KEY SOURCES

- Moore, Christopher. Calling Philosophers Names. Princeton University Press, 2020.
- Plato. Meno, Phaedrus, Gorgias. In Cooper, John M. (ed.), Plato: Complete Works. Hackett, 1997.
- Guthrie, W.K.C. A History of Greek Philosophy, Vol. IV. Cambridge University Press, 1975.

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CHAPTERS

00:00 — Introduction to Plato's Philosophical Journey
02:18 — The Birth of the Academy and Its Claims
04:17 — The Evolution of the Term 'Philosophos'
07:57 — The Distinction Between Episteme and Doxa
11:51 — Plato's Selective Approach to Knowledge
12:52 — Aristotle's Departure and Philosophical Expansion
13:33 — Recap

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SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW

New episodes every two weeks on Mondays.

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ABOUT NOTIONS OF PROGRESS

Notions of Progress traces ideas of progress from antiquity to the age of AI. Each episode examines how thinkers across history have conceived of human advancement — and what those conceptions reveal about the assumptions of their time and ours. Hosted by Marshall, the show operates as a scholarly curation: surfacing the debates and the scholarship rather than prescribing which position is correct.

Host: Marshall | Contact: marshall@notionsofprogress.com | Website: https://www.notionsofprogress.com/

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