Noble story left by a philosopher (9)
I believe the answer is:
aristotle
'philosopher' is the definition.
(I know that Aristotle is a philosopher)
'noble story left by a' is the wordplay.
'noble' becomes 'aristo' (I've seen this before).
'story' becomes 'tale' (synonyms).
'left by' suggests deleting specific letters (word is left or abandoned by specified letters ).
'tale' with 'a' taken out is 'tle'.
'aristo'+'tle'='ARISTOTLE'
(Other definitions for aristotle that I've seen before include "Thinking Greek" , "Ancient Greek philosopher" , "Greek logician" , "Peripatetic teacher" , "noted thinker" .)