settings
Anna Karenina vocabulary
488 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
help & settings
[x]
-
sophistry
-
notes:
{n}
synonyms: speciousness, casuistry, crocodility ???
► definition
Definition:a false, misleading argument---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.Ambrose Bierce. The Devil's Dictionary
► uses
Uses:
"No, excuse me, that’s a paradox."
"Yes, there's something of a sophistry about that," Veslovsky agreed.
Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina (Translated by Constance Garnett)
---
I mean not to cavil with you, as one loving sophistry : neither to control you, as one having superiority, the one would bring my talk into the suspicion of fraud, the other convince me of folly.
John Lyly. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578)
---
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.
Ambrose Bierce. The Devil's Dictionary
help with search