RETURN TO THOUGHTS

Generating a Table of Words

Here is a table of different words formed from a few Greek roots. Most of them refer to something, but some currently have no reference. Where a word currently is used, I have linked to its Wikipedia page if it has one.

Hover over any of the first row or column for an explanation of what it means.

-ology - Study/explanation of
-osophy - Wisdom of
-ogony - Origin/creation of
-ocracy - Rule of
-ography - Writing/map of
-ophilia - Love of
-omancy - Divination from

Cosm- The Cosmos/Universe
The- God/Deity
Phil- Love
Mis- Hate
Anthrop- Human
Ge- Earth
Bi- Life
Bibli- Book
Geront- The Elderly
Psych- Psyche/Mind
Necr- The Dead/Death
Techn- Tech

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I have some comments about a few of these.

Theogony - This only really makes sense in a polytheist context, as is seen by the fact that it names a poem by Hesiod. In an Abrahamic monotheistic context, it would be blasphemy because God is eternal and therefore has no beginning.

Theography - This is also blasphemous in an Abrahamic monotheistic context, because God cannot be drawn.

Philology - I always found this weird, because it seems like it should refer to a discipline which studies love, but in fact it is a discipline which studies words. It is a "love of words".

Philogony - What is the origin of love? Not sure. Probably something evolutionary. I think a lot of the -ogony words probably have their explanation in evolution. Misogony, Psychogony, certainly Anthropogony and Biogony, probably also Technogony.

Philocracy - This is what those Christians want!

Misology - The only context I think this appears is in Plato's Phaedo. From 89c to 91a in Phaedo, Socrates argues against Misology, which for him means "hatred of argument". He compares misology to misanthropy and says they arise in the same way. In pioneering work on the origin of Misology (Misologogony, if you will), Socrates says that people become misologues because they have trusted in arguments which turned out to be faulty. I have met a few people who are a bit misological, but I don't think that arises in the way Socrates describes. I think it arises from a distrust of one's own ability to recognise a good argument.

Misosophy - Naturally, as a student of Philosophy, I hate this! The misosopher is the eternal enemy of the philosopher! Just as philosophers endeavour to find sound arguments for surprising conclusions, so too does the misosopher do exactly the opposite of that! Oh how evil!

Anthropocracy - Every human society is an Anthropocracy. Is that tautological?

Bibliosophy - A bibliophile (bookworm) likely believes in bibliosophy. The wisdom of books.

Gerontosophy - This sort of sentiment is summed up in the saying "Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools." or in those sayings often said to young idealistic people "If you aren't a socialist by twenty you have no heart and if you aren't a conservative by forty you have no brain." I think this sort of appeal is quite bad and unhelpful. But I am youthful, so I suppose I would think that.

Psychogony - Origin of the mind. Epiphenomenalism can be criticised for lacking a plausible psychogony. If mental states are causally inert, then why did they evolve to exist, as they cannot play a causal role in evolution?

Psychography - This practice always makes me think of glossolalia (speaking in tongues), because practitioners of both claim to be overcome by some spirit that either manifests in writing (psychography) or speech (glossolalia).

Technomancy - A lot of practitioners of divination, I think, feel discomfort with the random number generators that computers provide as a means of divination.

I encourage you to search up any of these words that sound interesting. For most of them, someone online (let's be honest, probably a crank) is writing about them and maybe trying to start up some new discipline or movement.