for their adroit subtle and allegedly often specious reasoning 3. Relations of Sophistry to Education, Literature and Philosophy. Sophistry definition, a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning. Regarding Protagoras, Gorgias and Isocrates as types of one and the same sophistry (pp. How to say sophistry. .When logical incorrectness . Examples of sophistry in a Sentence Recent Examples on the Web The explanation is that the opponents of the law are blinded by a sort of opportunistic sophistry. I could not blush that my tender mind was entangled in the sophistry which had reduced the acute and manly understandings of a Chillingworth or a Bayle.". Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Examples and Observations: "When a false argument puts on the appearance of a true one, then it is properly called a sophism or fallacy." Find more ways to say sophistry, along with related words, antonyms and example phrases at Thesaurus.com, the world's most trusted free thesaurus. "impose gun controlto reduce crime"; in fact, guns prevent more crimes than they cause 2. Sophistry is an interesting word that is confusing to many people. The judge rejected the local authority 's argument as " mere sophistry ". , $MMT = window.$MMT || {}; $MMT.cmd = $MMT.cmd || [];$MMT.cmd.push(function(){ $MMT.display.slots.push(["45ba4f61-76ac-4b3d-94d4-c9019d2ebe3c"]); }), $MMT = window.$MMT || {}; $MMT.cmd = $MMT.cmd || [];$MMT.cmd.push(function(){ $MMT.display.slots.push(["418b1e7b-a189-47b4-952a-43e52a926ad5"]); }), $MMT = window.$MMT || {}; $MMT.cmd = $MMT.cmd || [];$MMT.cmd.push(function(){ $MMT.display.slots.push(["9b588b9a-598a-47f4-bc83-ba2fd303e5df"]); }). The sophistry of some of your arguments is laughable, as well. Beams of Light on Early Methodism in America. The property was derelict, and the cows, mostly rejects from other herds, were no respecters of finely-nuanced sophistry. Many politicians are cunning sophists. Below are some modern examples of sophistry: 1. Plato in his dialogue Gorgias exposes the dangers of amoral sophistical argument, in a demonstration of allowing the sophist, on the basis of a fallacy of clever sophistical logic, to lead him to "admit" that his father was a mongrel dog. We will examine the definition of sophistry, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences. , After the school learned the scientist’s theory was nothing but sophistry, it cancelled the research grant. See more. Log in. sophistry. the Socratics) dialectic; (3) that the differences between the different groups of sophists were not inconsiderable, and that in particular the teaching of the rhetoricians was distinct in origin, and, in so far as its aim was success in a special walk of life, distinct in character, from the more general teaching of the sophists of culture, the eristics, and the dialecticians, while the teaching of the dialecticians was discriminated from that of the rest, in so far as the aim of the dialecticians was truth, or at least the bettering of opinion; and, consequently, (4) that, in awarding praise and blame to sophistry and its representatives, the distinctive characteristics of the groups above enumerated must be studiously kept in view. I think such sophistry damage the contents of our articles. , John tried to use sophistry to hide his illegal actions from the tax agency. It might be made to seem to make sense when really being wrong, or it might use difficult words and complicated sentences to intimidate the audience into agreeing. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The reasoning may be plausible, but it is no better than sophistry. , Surprisingly, many debates are won by individuals who make use of sophistry to convince others they know something they do not. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. There is, however, another theory of the significance of Plato's allusions to eristical sophistry, that of Professor H. Whereas, when sophistry began, prose composition was hardly practised in central Greece, the sophists were still the leaders in literature and oratory when Plato wrote the Republic, and they had hardly lost their position when Demosthenes delivered the Philippics.