Words Unravelled with RobWords and Jess Zafarris What does 'philosophy' even mean? | PHILOSOPHICAL WORDS
25 snips
Feb 25, 2026 A lively dive into the Greek roots of philosophy, from philo and sophia to Socratic questioning and aporia. They trace sophism, rhetorical tricks, and how ideas like stoicism, Epicureanism, cynicism, and platonic love got their names. Etymologies of belief, logos/ethos/pathos, political philosophy labels, and playful takes on parody religions round out the conversation.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Logos Bridges Word And Reason
- Logos in Greek carries multiple linked meanings: word, account, and reason, which explains why many -logy words relate to both speech and study.
- This semantic flexibility shaped Western concepts of logic and rational order.
Metaphysics Meant The Book After Physics
- 'Metaphysics' originally meant 'the thing after the Physics' in Aristotle's works, not 'beyond the physical.'
- The shift from 'after' to 'beyond' shows how scholarly labeling changed philosophical sense over time.
Absurdism Is Tone Deaf To Cosmic Meaning
- Absurdism holds human quests for meaning collide with a silent, arbitrary universe, famously symbolised by Camus's Sisyphus.
- The English 'absurd' traces to Latin absurdus describing something tone-deaf or literally 'unheard of.'
