The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word HEGEL
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
H
E
G
E
L
More clues leading to the result HEGEL
- Despicable man squashes grand philosopher
- List includes grand philosopher
- Philosopher on what’s put over
- Incline to embrace German philosopher
- Philosopher in male set
- Tip describes good philosopher
- Man turned on philosopher
- Rejected member that went unheard as a philosopher
- Philosopher brought up on what?
- The philosopher and the man come together
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Philosopher" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case philosopher = hegel.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.