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Questions tagged [sophism]

Use this tag for posts referencing philosophers or their ideas, ancient or not, identified in some way, rightly or wrongly, as "sophists". Use the tag "fallacies" for questions regarding specific fallacious or deceptive arguments.

The following provide survey material with bibliographies on Sophists:

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Are there any books about postmodernism being like sophism?

I still find myself relatively often surprised by how much of the spectrum of philosophic thought was already covered at the times of ancient Greece or ancient China (think Axial Age or think footnotes to Plato). Has any recent philosopher (or…
Drux
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Modern Sophists?

I was wondering if in professional philosophy there are modern sophists. That is, people who have no qualms publishing on both sides of an issue, perhaps not being able to themselves come to conclusions. This would be very interesting if there were…
Jacob Wakem
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Is sophistry useful?

I read from Lazlo Versenyi's Socratic Humanism (p. 1-72, 1963). "The first part of this book offers a thoughtful and provocative defense of the Sophists" (D. A. Hyland, The Origin of Philosophy: Its Rise in Myth and the Pre-Socratics [1973], p.…
Darcy Davis
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Was Hume a sophist?

rs.29 wrote in an answer to a question about the is-ought problem the following: ...we could hold the is–ought problem only as a obsolete sophism, and not as a real problem. This reminded me of something G. E. M. Anscombe wrote about Hume in…
Frank Hubeny
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What were the main sophistical methods according to Plato?

In her paper Modern Moral Philosophy, G. E. M. Anscombe used the phrase "sophistical methods" and "his procedures are certainly sophistical" (page 3 of the linked file). I assume this meant something specific to her listeners in the 1950's. I assume…
Frank Hubeny
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The disdain for sophism in Plato's dialogues vs. the real sophists

As we all know, sophism is regarded as the immoral, malformed twin of philosophy in Plato's dialogues. Socrates sees a fundamental distinction here: However, as I put it, cookery is flattery disguised as medicine; and in just the same manner…
viuser
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Is sophistry used as a performance art in modern times?

Obviously, performance art in the narrow sense, "as an antithesis to theatre, challenging orthodox art forms and cultural norms", did not exist in Greece. Are there any well known contemporary (since modernism) performance artists who use sophistry…
user38026
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What methods are used to deal with sophists?

Time and time again, I hear of "clever phrases" to try to get away with something: The software engineer totally messed up on a 5 month project, and his contractor agency just said it as "he obviously dropped the ball this time, but he deservers…
Stefanie Gauss
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How did the Sophists contribute to modern education?

I'm taking a course in Pedagogical Trends and we've studied about Sophists, Socartes and Plato.. So, I want to know how did the Sophists contribute to modern education?
Loubna Ferrouk
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