'Sophist' definitions:
Definition of 'Sophist'
(from WordNet)
noun
Any of a group of Greek philosophers and teachers in the 5th century BC who speculated on a wide range of subjects
noun
Someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious [syn: casuist, sophist]
Definition of 'Sophist'
From: GCIDE
- Sophist \Soph"ist\, n. [F. sophiste, L. sophistes, fr. Gr. ?. See Sophism.]
- 1. One of a class of men who taught eloquence, philosophy, and politics in ancient Greece; especially, one of those who, by their fallacious but plausible reasoning, puzzled inquirers after truth, weakened the faith of the people, and drew upon themselves general hatred and contempt. [1913 Webster]
- Many of the Sophists doubdtless card not for truth or morality, and merely professed to teach how to make the worse appear the better reason; but there scems no reason to hold that they were a special class, teaching special opinions; even Socrates and Plato were sometimes styled Sophists. --Liddell & Scott. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Hence, an impostor in argument; a captious or fallacious reasoner. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'sophist'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- casuist,
- choplogic,
- cosmologist,
- dialectician,
- Jesuit,
- logicaster,
- logician,
- logistician,
- metaphysician,
- paralogist,
- philosophaster,
- philosophe,
- philosopher,
- philosophizer,
- ratiocinator,
- rationalist,
- rationalizer,
- reasoner,
- sophister,
- speculator,
- syllogist,
- syllogizer,
- thinker