Society esteems a great philosopher (8)
I believe the answer is:
socrates
'a great philosopher' is the definition.
'socrates' can be an answer for 'philosopher' (Socrates is an example). I am not sure about the 'a great' bit.
'society esteems' is the wordplay.
'society' becomes 'soc' (abbreviation in the names of organisations).
'esteems' becomes 'rates' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'soc'+'rates'='SOCRATES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for socrates that I've seen before include "old question-master?" , "Coarsest (anag) - philosopher" , "Ancient Greek" , "Coarsest sort of Greek philosopher" , "2 [PHILOSOPHER]" .)