Theosophist and Theosopher

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Confusing Words Series · 5 pages

The distinction is between those who do and those who talk, and it is stated at the head in Blavatsky's own words: two or three Theosophists full of unselfish love and charity and ready to work for all that suffers and needs help are worth ten thousand Theosophers who talk instead of acting and sermonize instead of teaching. The grammatical case for the preference follows. The suffix -ist denotes a person in a well-defined profession or occupation — dentist, cardiologist, pianist — and also an adherent of a doctrine, so that theo-sophist means an expert in and a practitioner of theosophy.

The complication is that sophist has its own history, and the file traces it carefully. Philosophy means love of wisdom, while philosophism is faulty or fallacious philosophy that comes from sophistry, the development of an argument intended to deceive — which is why orthodox philosophers never called themselves philosophists, and why Pythagoras allowed himself to be called philosopher but never wise. The Greek sophistes originally meant a master of one's own craft, an adept, an expert, prudent and statesman-like — the Seven Sages were called sophistai — and its meaning progressively changed from practitioner of true wisdom to practitioner of false. Here the suffix is used in the original sense, which is what allows Theosophist to be the word of praise and Theosopher the word of reproach.

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