We all love Harry Potter. We have been dedicated to the boy who lived for almost 20 years now, since the initial release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
"What's that?" I hear you say, if you are an American person. "Philosopher's Stone? Don't you mean Sorcerer's Stone?"
No, American person, I mean Philosopher's Stone. Don't worry. I'm here to tell you why.
Firstly, let's look at the dictionary definitions of the words "philosopher" and "sorcerer".
Now, I don't think you're suggesting that celebrated philosophers are real-life wizards with magical powers.
Left: Archimedes, mathematician and philosopher, but not wizard.
Right: René Descartes, also mathematician and philosopher, also not wizard.
But that's not the only reason why calling it Sorcerer's Stone is wrong. Because the Philosopher's Stone is an actual real-life legend. And you can't just go around renaming actual real-life legends all willy-nilly.
Mention of the Philosopher's Stone has been traced back to around 300AD, which (believe it or not) was quite a while before the first Harry Potter book was published.
Yes, it's true, there was a time before Harry Potter. I don't remember it either, tbh.
Oh, and sidenote: That guy Nicolas Flamel, the major plot point in the first book? Also real.
"So," you might be thinking, "why did they change it to Sorcerer's Stone for us Americans?"
