SOPHISTRY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... at this plausible argument. The Catholics say that no Protestant can be saved, but the Protestants admit that a Catholic may be, if in heart honest, just, and true. The sophistry of the plea in behalf of an insincere renunciation of faith is too palpable to influence any mind but one eager to be convinced. The king was counseled to obey the Decalogue, which forbids false witness, while ...

— Henry IV, Makers of History • John S. C. Abbott

... that society would have branded him eternally for a coward had he held back; that he took up his weapon in self-defence precisely as a man levels his gun at the house-breaker or the midnight assassin;—the expounder of the law has still been proof against sophistry which, once accepted, must tend inevitably to social disorganization. The deliberate resolution to kill a fellow-creature has nothing to do with self-defence. To destroy another in cold blood is murder in the sight of the law, and can assume no ...

— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... and in a crowd of pamphlets and periodicals which followed in its train, the humour of the poet Prior, the bitter irony of Swift, an Irish writer who was now forcing his way into fame, as well as St. John's own brilliant sophistry, spent themselves on the abuse of the war and of its general. "Six millions of supplies and almost fifty millions of debt!" Swift wrote bitterly; "the High Allies have been the ruin of us!" Marlborough was ridiculed and reviled, even his courage was called in question; he was charged with insolence, ...

— History of the English People, Volume VII (of 8) - The Revolution, 1683-1760; Modern England, 1760-1767 • John Richard Green

... type of this triumphant and dangerous sophistry of the emotions. The Rousseau of these times for English-speaking nations is Thomas Carlyle. An apology is perhaps needed for mentioning a man of such simple, veracious, disinterested, and wholly high-minded life, in the same breath with one of the least sane men that ever lived. Community ...

— Critical Miscellanies, Vol. I - Essay 2: Carlyle • John Morley

... was born out of my mother—the giants of circumstance. And you would judge me by my acts! But can you not look within? Can you not understand that evil is hateful to me? Can you not see within me the clear writing of conscience, never blurred by any wilful sophistry, although too often disregarded? Can you not read me for a thing that surely must be ...

— Short Stories for English Courses • Various (Rosa M. R. Mikels ed.)

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