 |
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Sophistry \Soph"ist*ry\, noun [OE. sophistrie, OF. sophisterie.]
1. The art or process of reasoning; logic. [Obs.]
2. The practice of a sophist; fallacious reasoning; reasoning sound in appearance only.
The juggle of sophistry consists, for the most part, in usig a word in one sense in the premise, and in another sense in the conclusion. --Coleridge.
Syn: See {Fallacy}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
sophistry
noun: a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone [syn: {sophism}, {sophistication}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
152 Moby Thesaurus words for "sophistry": Italian hand, acuteness, aesthetics, ambiguity, argument, argument by analogy, argumentum ad baculum, argumentum ad captandum, argumentum ad hominem, art, artfulness, artifice, astuteness, axiology, bad case, begging the question, cageyness, callidity, canniness, casuistry, circular argument, claptrap, cleverness, college of Laputa, corruption, cosmology, craft, craftiness, crossed fingers, crowd-pleasing argument, cunning, cunningness, deception, deceptiveness, deduction, deductive reasoning, delusion, demonstration, discourse, discourse of reason, discursive reason, disingenuousness, emptiness, empty words, epistemology, equivocation, ethics, fallacy, fine Italian hand, finesse, first philosophy, formal fallacy, foxiness, gamesmanship, gnosiology, guile, hollow mockery, hollowness, hysteron proteron, induction, inductive reasoning, ingeniousness, insidiousness, insincere argument, insincerity, inventiveness, jesuitry, logic, logical fallacy, logical thought, material fallacy, mental philosophy, mere rhetoric, metaphysics, misdirection, misguidance, misinformation, misinstruction, misknowledge, misleading, misteaching, mockery, moonshine, moral philosophy, mystification, non sequitur, obfuscation, obscurantism, obscuration, one-upmanship, ontology, paralogism, perversion, petitio principii, phenomenology, philosophastry, philosophic doctrine, philosophic system, philosophic theory, philosophical inquiry, philosophical speculation, philosophism, philosophy, proof, pseudosyllogism, ratiocination, rationalism, rationality, rationalization, rationalizing, readiness, reason, reasonableness, reasoning, resourcefulness, satanic cunning, school of philosophy, school of thought, science of being, sharpness, shiftiness, shrewdness, slipperiness, slyness, sneakiness, solecism, sophism, specious reasoning, speciousness, spuriousness, stealth, stealthiness, subtilty, subtleness, subtlety, suppleness, sweet reason, tergiversation, theory of beauty, theory of knowledge, tongue in cheek, trickiness, uncandidness, uncandor, unfrankness, value theory, verbal fallacy, wariness, weak point, wiles, wiliness, wit
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
SOPHISTRY, noun The controversial method of an opponent, distinguished from one's own by superior insincerity and fooling. This method is that of the later Sophists, a Grecian sect of philosophers who began by teaching wisdom, prudence, science, art and, in brief, whatever men ought to know, but lost themselves in a maze of quibbles and a fog of words.
His bad opponent's "facts" he sweeps away, And drags his sophistry to light of day; Then swears they're pushed to madness who resort To falsehood of so desperate a sort. Not so; like sods upon a dead man's breast, He lies most lightly who the least is pressed. Polydore Smith
 |
Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |