Sophistry

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sophistry \Soph"ist*ry\, n. [OE. sophistrie, OF. sophisterie.]
     1. The art or process of reasoning; logic. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The practice of a sophist; fallacious reasoning; reasoning
        sound in appearance only.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: See {Fallacy}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sophistry
       n : 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, n.  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