Dug up old philosopher, dead (7)
I believe the answer is:
exhumed
'dug up' is the definition.
(exhuming is a kind of digging up)
'old philosopher dead' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'ex'.
'philosopher' becomes 'hume' (I've seen this in other clues).
'dead' becomes 'd'.
'ex'+'hume'+'d'='EXHUMED'
(Other definitions for exhumed that I've seen before include "Dug up a dead body" , "Disintered" , "Disinterred" , "Dug out (a corpse)" , "brought to surface" .)