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Sophism
Definitions
- 1 The school of the sophists in antiquity; their beliefs and method of teaching philosophy and rhetoric. historical, uncountable
"Within the framework of democracy a new ideology, born of sophism, took root and proclaimed the rights of the individual in all spheres, political as well as moral."
- 2 Archaic spelling of Sufism. alt-of, archaic, uncountable
- 3 a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone wordnet
- 4 A flawed argument, superficially correct in its reasoning, usually designed to deceive. countable
"The hope of improvement is a quality at once so strong and so excellent in the human mind, that I, for one, disapprove of any sophism—or, if you will, argument—that tends to repress it."
- 5 An intentional fallacy. countable
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- 6 Sophistic, fallacious reasoning or argumentation. uncountable
"What! No demonstration of the Being of God! No abstract arguments! No proofs a priori! Are these, which have hitherto been so much insisted on by philosophers, all fallacy, all sophism? Can we reach no further in this subject than experience and probability?"
- 7 Wisdom and knowledge. countable, rare
Etymology
From Middle English sophim, from Old French soffime, sofime, sofisme, sophisme, from Latin sophisma (“fallacy, sophism”), from Ancient Greek σόφῐσμᾰ (sóphĭsmă), from σοφίζω (sophízō) + -μα (-ma).
See also for "sophism"
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