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Word of the Day : July 6, 2018
sophistry \SAH-fuh-stree\ noun
Definition
1 : subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation
2 : an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially : such an argument used to deceive
Did You Know?
The original Sophists were ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric and philosophy prominent in the 5th century B.C.E. In their heyday, these philosophers were considered adroit in their reasoning, but later philosophers (particularly Plato) described them as sham philosophers, out for money and willing to say anything to win an argument. Thus, sophist—which can be traced back, via the Greek sophistēs ("wise man" or "expert") and sophizesthai ("to become wise"), to sophos, meaning "clever" or wise"—earned a negative connotation as "a captious or fallacious reasoner."
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Aired July 6, 2018
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