An Interesting Philosophy

[thecheese]

I know this must be somewhere on this site but i acvnt find it.

Does anyone know why insome places the first harry potter movie is called HP and the philosophers stone (Australia) and in other places it is called HP and the sorceres stone (America)???

[Jotomicron]

I have no clue... nevertheless, I voted for Sorcerer Stone: for me it sound really better

[Augusta Longbottom]

How random...I was just thinking this exact same thing last night...and was going to post this question today! Great minds think alike I guess...lol!

I'm going to vote for Philosopher's Stone since that was the original name I believe. I'm in the US so it's Sorcerer's Stone here.

[Female_alien]

The philosopher's stone is original name and I voted for it. The names are different because thy are translated and in America they say sorcerer and in UK they say philosopher - I think

[rock_star]

I'm here in Canada and I'm pretty sure ours says Philosopher's stone

[thecheese]

just so you know
a sorcerer is someone who preforms magic (flamel was a sorcerer)
a philosopher is someone who studies the meaning of life (someone that was immortal would most likly be a philosopher because they would have a lot of time to think about the meaning of life.)

My philosophy:
I think therefore i am,
but i am micromanaged therefore i am not,
you are not me therefore you are irrelevant.

[Charis]

a philosopher could have a different meaning too... like i'm not completely sure about this but aren't alchemists (people in medieval times try to make gold out of different forms of metal) called philosophers in Europe? well... that seems compltely irrelevant but i know theres some legend or something that there was a stone made by one of those 'philosophers' that gives you long life. but no one in america knew that so they changed it to sorcerer's.

[Augusta Longbottom]

It doesn't make sense to me why it would be Philosopher's Stone in Canada and Sorcerer's Stone in the USA since we have the same language. And unless there was a very good reason for the switch, it sort of irks me that the name was switched just for the US....why can't we just be happy with the original name...but nooooo, we have to have it changed to suit us. Heck, I'm surprised they (US movie makers) didn't insist on all the movie characters sounding more American! LOL Sorry 'bout the rant...just really curious about the 2 names.

[Mint]

Well, not all of the kids know about Philosopher's Stone legend.

Sorcerer's Stone on the other hand - is more understandable and "cool" because all of the kids know about sorcerers and wizards. So the reason for this change in US is because they wanted to make more money out of it. ("they" prob. was like 1 or 2 people who were working on editing.)

[Augusta Longbottom]

yah mint, I bet you're right about it all coming down to money. From a marketing standpoint I bet they saw a better profit margin with the new name rather than the original name. I'm sure you're on target with that point of view.

[Nightfall]

In medival times, there were alchemists who tried change substances into gold. They believed the power to be stored in the Philosopher's Stone. So from this legend, we got the Stone. However, Scholastic changed it to Sorcerer's Stone for the US version while the Canadian publisher kept the original title. Why? Who knows?

[Wiltshire]

Speaking as an American, the term "philosopher" in America has the connotation of dealing with thinking, rhetorical questions, wisdom, and the like...virtually nothing to do with magic. I don't think the name was changed just for "money" reasons, but because American kids would likely be completely misled by the title simply because of cultural differences in its meaning. Changing it to Sorcerer's Stone helps kids immediately see what the book's about, just as Philosopher's Stone would in other countries. I don't know why there's the difference between U.S. and Canada, though.

[Jotomicron]

Well, philosoher does mean alcemist and they dis search for a stone which they thought would be able to turn ordinary metal into gold, to cure all ills and therefore to confer longevity. They called this stone the "philosopher stone". That is the most correct term.

However, Sorcerer is a more magical word and causes more impact.

Anyway, in Portugal, we have the title translated into something like "HP and the Philosophical Stone" and it really caused impact!

[Mint]

I don't think the name was changed just for "money" reasons, but because American kids would likely be completely misled by the title simply because of cultural differences in its meaning.

But the whole reason why they wanted it to be "more understandable" for US kids - was because of money. Lol, do u think they are just nice people who want lil kids to pick up this book becuase its oh so good? No, they saw that its popular in England so they wanted it to be as popular in US (if not more) so they can get their money worth.

In England there are also philosophers you know. So if you follow the same pattern of thinking - kids in England could have been mislead too.

[Phinea Rogue]

That's interesting, I've never before thought of a difference between "philosopher's stone" and "sorcerer's stone", but I guess "Philosopher's" sounds better, more connected to that legend about alchymists.