sophistic

adj

1. Synonym of sophistical, of or related to the ancient Sophists, characterized by fallacious reasoning.

   “[…] he is simply translating into Marxian terms the Sophistic view “that the more powerful will always take advantage of the weaker, and will give the name of law and justice to whatever they lay down in their own interests.””

2. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of sophistic (“pertaining to the sophists”).

noun

1. (historical)The supposed beliefs and methods of the Sophists, taken as a kind of school of thought.

   “But when we consider his wish to reconcile Philosophy and Rhetoric, it must be remembered that, if the new Sophistic differed in most of its essential features from the Sophistic of Plato’s contemporaries, it was Philosophy as conceived by Isocrates rather than Plato that Themistius had in mind.”

   “Rather, to use Whitman’s phrase, Sophokles “thought through” a great deal more of the sophistic than their attacks on religion or their fascination with religion.”

   “The luminaries of the ‘first sophistic’—Philostratus cites Gorgias, Critias, and others—treated, we are told, abstract philosophical themes.”

2. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of sophistic.