"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Friday 31 July 2009

Sophistry

 
Sophistry means creating an argument that seems plausible, but is fallacious or misleading, especially one devised deliberately to be so; the art of using deceptive speech or writing; cunning or trickery.

Sophism can mean two very different things: In the modern definition, a sophism is a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone. But in Ancient Greece, the sophists were a group of teachers of philosophy and rhetoric and the term sophism originated from Greek sophistēs, meaning "wise-ist", one who "does" wisdom, one who makes a business out of wisdom (sophós means "wise man").
 

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