Sophistry
Clever argument aimed at winning rather than at truth — the charge Plato hurled at the paid teachers of persuasion, and the reason "sophistry" is still an insult.
The sophists were traveling professional teachers of rhetoric and 'excellence' in 5th-c. BCE Greece — Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, and others — who, for a fee, taught the young how to argue any side of a case. Through Socrates, Plato (4th c. BCE) branded their skill 'sophistry': showy reasoning that chases victory and persuasion instead of real knowledge. Aristotle then catalogued its tricks in his 'Sophistical Refutations.' Whether the historical sophists deserved the smear is still debated, but the polemic fixed 'sophistry' in Western languages as a byword for plausible but fallacious argument.
How it traveled
- The First TetralogyAthens · -411applies
- The Second TetralogyAthens · -411applies
- ApologyAthens · -399explains
- ProtagorasAthens · -385explains
- EuthydemusAthens · -384explains
- RepublicAthens · -375explains
- PhaedrusAthens · -370explains
- TheaetetusAthens · -369challenges
- SophistAthens · -360explains
- MemorabiliaAthens · -354explains
- GorgiasAthens · -348explains
- Against TimarchusAthens · -346explains
- On the False EmbassyAthens · -343applies
- PanathenaicusAthens · -339challenges
- AntidosisAthens · -338explains
- Against the SophistsAthens · -338challenges
- RhetoricChalcis · -335explains
- Against CtesiphonAthens · -330explains
- On the CrownAthens · -330explains
- De sophisticis elenchisChalcis · -322explains
- MetaphysicsChalcis · -322explains
- HistoriesMegalopolis · -118applies
- In C. VerremFormiae · -70applies
- Institutio OratoriaRome · 95explains
- Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscaturChaeronea · 120explains
- Noctes AtticaeRome · 180explains
- PiscatorSamosata · 180explains
- Rhetorum praeceptorSamosata · 180explains
- AlexanderSamosata · 180explains
- HermotimusSamosata · 180explains
- Adversus MathematicosAlexandria · 190explains
- Pyrrhoniae HypotyposesAlexandria · 210explains
- DeipnosophistaeNaucratis · 230explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.]—explains
- CloudsAthensexplains
- In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Paraphrasis—explains
- Historia RomanaRomeexplains
- Volumina RhetoricaNaplesexplains
- Historical LibrarySyracuse (Sicily)explains
Key passages(20)
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias
In Aristotelis Sophisticos Elenchos Commentarius [Sp.] · Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias