Maître à penser is a French language phrase, denoting a teacher whom one chooses, in order to learn not just a set of facts or point of view, but a way of thinking. It translates literally as "master at thinking" French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...

To take a maître à penser is therefore close to becoming a disciple. The phrase itself can be used to refer to a type of person — an inspirational genius, for example — who naturally would attract followers interested enough to absorb a whole intellectual approach. One could say, "Mr Hahn is my Maître à penser"; by which one would mean that Mr Hahn is an personal source of inspiration. DISCiPLE, Miles Gordon Technologys first product, was a floppy disk interface for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum home computer. ...

A maître à penser is therefore possibly something like a mentor or guru, with a possibly beneficent approach. A negative effect of much a master might be to close down all other intellectual avenues in a student, imposing some schematic or monolithic approach. Such a master receives the French pejorative maître-penseur. In Greek mythology, Mentor (sometimes Mentes) was the son of Alcumus and, in his old age, a friend of Odysseus. ... A guru (गुरू Sanskrit) is a Hindu religious teacher. ... A word or phrase is pejorative if it expresses contempt or disapproval. ...