Are the Philosopher's Stone and the Sorcerer's Stone the same thing?

Question

I saw a show about this on the History Channel. I never saw Harry Potter. Was Harry Potter based on the story of the Philosopher's Stone?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

yes, and Im watching the same show. Pretty cool eh?

Answer 3

Its the same thing, Philosopher's stone is the European version, Sorcerer's stone is the American version.

Answer 4

Harry Potter was a fictitious character in a series of books by Rowlings.  The Philosopher's stone was something that alchemist tried to find many many years ago. Somewhat like the Fountain of Youth. Not likely real yet still actually searched for.

Answer 5

No one knows if anyone ever created a "Philosopher's Stone". However Nicolas Flammel was indeed a real person and was highly involved in alchemy.

Answer 6

Yes, the philosopher's stone is a material sought by the alchemists that could be used to create an elixir of life and hence immortality. Unfortunately, the marketing people for the Harry Potter franchise figures that a US audience would not make the connection and so changed it to Sorcerer's Stone to make the link with magic more implicit. However, my son has both a UK and a US release of the movie on DVD, and while the artwork is different, the title on both uses the word "Philosopher's".

Next question: What is philosopher's wool?

Answer 7

Yes the stories are basically the same.

The Philosopher's Stone was the British English release and the Sorcerer's Stone was the American English release.

Some words and terms are different but the overall story is the same.

Answer 8

The original title of J.K. Rowling's first book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It was re-named the "Sorcerer's Stone" for the American market.

It's not that Harry Potter was based on the story of the Philosopher's Stone, just that that was the first story in the series.