sophistry

noun

1. (historical, uncountable)The actions or arguments of a sophist.

   “Such conduct is at any rate not sophistical, if Aristotle be right in describing sophistry as the art of making money.”

2. (uncountable)Plausible yet fallacious argumentation or reasoning.
3. (countable)An argument that seems plausible, but is fallacious or misleading, especially one devised deliberately to be so.

   “And so he reasoned until the first generous impulse to proclaim the truth and relinquish his titles and his estates to their rightful owner was forgotten beneath the mass of sophistries which self-interest had advanced.”