Romanus eunt domus.
Eunt, what is eunt?
Er… to go!
Conjugate the verb to go…
Sounds like Judean People’s Front propaganda!
Splitters!
Non cogito, ergo non sum.
Multi stulti non cognitant tamen sunt.
Philosophers overuse Latin? Wait till you hear about medicine and law.
Carpe Diem
The original YOLO
Or as I like to say, “Carpe Denim,” seize the pants.
My motto is Carpe diem, sit maturam.
Pluck the day, once it’s ripe
Academic philosophy is mostly concerned with the Greeks and Germans. The Romans had their philosophers, but they did not have the same influence on modern thought.
Also, often times philosophers do use an original word or phrase because it cannot be translated well into English. Language evolves over time and concepts as they were originally understood can be lost or muddled by modern uses of a word used to substitute. Also, etymology is more and more important in philosophy.
I read and write in academic philosophy for a living. Philosophers causally throw around Latin phrases in their writing (and, sometimes embarrassingly, even when speaking):
-
Many from historical figures (e.g., Kant’s a priori/a posteriori, Berkeley’s “esse ist percepi”, Descartes “cogito ero sum”, Leibniz’s “salva veritate”, etc.)
-
Forms/rules in logic (e.g., “modus ponens”, “modus tollens”, “reductio ad absurdum”, etc.)
-
Informal fallacy names (e.g., “ad hominem”, “tu quoque”, “ad populum”, etc)
-
As well as a myriad of other commonly used terms you’re expected to know when reading philosophy (e.g., prima facie, mutatis mutandis, a fortiori, eo ipso, ex nihilo, sui generis, ceteris paribus, ad hoc, non sequitur, etc. etc.).
This is not a random list. Every one of these Latin phrases sees heavy use in today’s philosophical literature.
-
OP confused philosophers with lawyers, probably.
Are we disrespecting Latin now?? Sic transit gloria mundi!
Quid pro quo
If only there were some way to express the concept of “this for that” in simple English.
Oops I just did it
Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur
My favourite, and the most accurate answer.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
(Who’s guarding the guardians)
agentibus emissumque canis de?
(Who let the dogs out)
My favorite version of this is the person that you can tell is ITCHING to use that latin term they just found out about is arguing with a certified idiot. They keep dropping "argumentum ad hominem"s and "non sequitur"s at the idiot and the idiot doesn’t know what it means or care and it goes on and on and on.
Wow, no need for the at person remarks.
post hoc, ergo propter hoc
Romanes eunt domus
Semper ubi sub ubi
Tu stulidus et asinus est.
Gotta learn the most important words first.
