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Literary notes about sophism (AI summary)

Literary authors employ the term "sophism" to denote arguments that appear deceptively sound yet ultimately rest on fallacious or misleading reasoning. Often, it is used to characterize complex theoretical constructs that weave through entire discourses, imbuing them with an aura of credibility while masking their inherent logical flaws [1, 2]. In critical discussions—ranging from political economy to religious and ethical debates—the word serves to challenge assertions that rely on deceptive verbal subtleties or popular but unexamined assumptions [3, 4, 5]. Moreover, some writers invoke the term with a tone of both irony and disdain, suggesting that such reasoning not only fails rigorous scrutiny but also misleads its audience through artful rhetoric [6, 7].
  1. A Sophism will sometimes expand and extend itself through the whole tissue of a long and tedious theory.
    — from Sophisms of the Protectionists by Frédéric Bastiat
  2. It would be a too tedious undertaking to endeavor to point out all the fallacies of this Sophism.
    — from What Is Free Trade?An Adaptation of Frederic Bastiat's "Sophismes Éconimiques" Designed for the American Reader by Frédéric Bastiat
  3. There is, in political economy, no more generally accredited Sophism than this.
    — from Sophisms of the Protectionists by Frédéric Bastiat
  4. To construct science without God in his creative act as the principle, is to begin in sophism and end in nihilism.
    — from The Catholic World, Vol. 08, October, 1868, to March, 1869. by Various
  5. How does he drown the clamors of passion, the calculations of mere expediency, the sophism of mere personal interest and utility.
    — from Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thought in Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles by B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Cocker
  6. Though I do not know that I have misrepresented Descartes in this result of his very subtle argument, it is difficult not to treat it as a sophism.
    — from Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. 2 by Henry Hallam
  7. “That’s a beautiful sophism,” said the girl with a smile more beautiful still.
    — from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

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