(φιλοσοφία, love of wisdom) is a term which is said to owe its origin to Pythagoras, who, disclaiming the presumptive title of φιλός, or sage, assumed by his predecessors, chose rather to designate himself as a φιλόσοφος, a lover of the ὁράων, as one who, though ardent in the pursuit of wisdom, yet could never properly arrogate to himself the possession of it. Cicero tells this story (Tusc. Quest. lib. V., cap. 3) on the authority of Heracles Ponticus, who is, however, confessed to have been a fabulous writer. There was, however, a verb φιλόσοφειν, to philosophize, in the time of Herodotus; and the term, as a distinctive epithet, was brought into general use by Socrates, to denote the science that is conversant about the causes and existence of things. Philosophical knowledge, in the widest acceptation of the term, is the knowledge of effects as dependent on their causes. And as every cause to which we can ascend is also an effect, it follows that it belongs to philosophy to trace up the series of effects till we arrive at causes which are not themselves effects, and have reduced them to the fewest possible number. It follows, therefore,