What is Sophism? An Urdu Introduction

What is Sophism? An Urdu Introduction

سوفسطائیت۔ پانچویں صدی قبل مسیح میں یونانی عقلاء کی تحریک

The term “sophism” comes from the Greek “Sophos” or “Sophia” (meaning “wise” or “wisdom”). It is originally referred to any expertise in a specific domain of knowledge or craft. After a period where it mainly referred to poets, the word came to describe general wisdom. And especially, wisdom about human affairs. Over time, it came to denote a class of itinerant intellectuals who taught courses. Who speculated about the nature of language and culture. Who was employees rhetoric to achieve their purposes (which was generally to persuade or convince others)? What is Sophism? An Urdu Introduction

Well Regarded

Sophists had considerable influence in their time and had largely well-regarded. They were generally itinerant teachers who accepted fees in return for instruction in oratory and rhetoric. And they emphasized the practical application of rhetoric toward civic and political life. Their cultural and psychological contributions played an important role in the growth of democracy in Athens. Sophists were also some of the world’s first lawyers, making full use of their highly-developed argumentation skill.

Early Sophists

Plato was especially dismissive of Gorgias, one of the most famous and successful of the early Sophists. Sophism had thought capable of perverting the truth because it had emphasized practical rhetoric rather than virtue. And taught students to argue any side of an issue. In most cases, our knowledge of Sophist thought comes down to us from fragmentary quotations that lack context. Many of these from Aristotle, who, like his teacher Plato, held the Sophists in slight regard.

Answers to All Questions

The early Sophists claimed that they could find the answers to all questions. Which, along with their practice of taking fees and their questioning of the existence. They led to popular resentment against Sophist practitioners, ideas and writings. Some writers have included Socrates as a Sophist. Although he was scrupulous in accepting no fees and making no claims of superior wisdom. And his most illustrious student, Plato, depicts Socrates as refuting the Sophists in several of his “Dialogues”.