SOPHISTRY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Sophistry

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noun

Sophistry n.

The art or process of reasoning; logic. (Obs.)

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."

Synonyms: See Fallacy.

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Etymology of 'Sophistry'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sophistry" Quotes from Famous Books

... the limit for all Moslems at four lawful wives; and in spite of the arguments of R. Bosworth Smith, we must regard it as a most damning after-thought that made the first and only exception to accommodate his own weakness. By that act he placed himself beyond the help of all sophistry, and took his true place in the sober judgment of mankind. And by a law which is as unerring as the law of gravitation, he became more and more sensual as age advanced. At the time of his death he was the husband of eleven wives. We are not favored with a list of his concubines:[107] we only know ...

— Oriental Religions and Christianity • Frank F. Ellinwood

... don't know how to answer the simplest questions. I'm a plain tanner who never in my life studied sophistry, yet I know why I must honour ...

— Best Russian Short Stories • Various

... forged on, "the work should be its own reward, its own justification. At least would-be artists are told so repeatedly. Whenever one rebels at the injustice the world is there with this sophistry, feeds him with it as a nurse feeds pap to a crying child, until he's full and temporarily comatose. But just suppose for an instant that the same argument were used in any other field of endeavor. Suppose, for instance, you ...

— The Dominant Dollar • Will Lillibridge

... That there is "sophistry" on one side or other, is certain; but now it matters not on which. On my part it has not been a question of words. Yet your understanding or mine must be strangely warped—for what you term "delicacy," appears to me to be exactly the contrary. I have no criterion ...

— Posthumous Works - of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • Mary Wollstonecraft

... of singular skill. His mind was fertile in resources. He was a master of logic. No man perceived more quickly than he the strength or the weakness of an argument, and no one excelled him in the use of sophistry and fallacy. Where he could not elucidate a point to his own advantage, he would fatally becloud it for his opponent. In that peculiar style of debate which in intensity resembles a physical combat, he had no equal. He spoke with extraordinary readiness. ...

— The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln • Francis Fisher Browne

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