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THE SOPHISTS
Sophism (from the Greek
sophistes meaning "wise-ist," or one who 'does' wisdom, i.e. who
makes a business out of wisdom; cf. sophós, "wise man", cf. also
wizard) was originally a term for the techniques taught by a
highly respected group of philosophy and rhetoric teachers in ancient
Greece. In the second half of the 5th century B.C., and especially
at Athens, 'sophist' came to be applied to a group of thinkers and
speakers who employed rhetoric to achieve their purposes, generally to
persuade or convince others. Many of them taught their skills,
apparently often for a fee. Due to the importance of such skills
in the litigious social life of Athens, practitioners of such skills
often commanded very high fees. The practice of taking fees,
coupled with the willingness of many sophists to use their rhetorical
skills to pursue unjust lawsuits, eventually led to a decline in respect
for practitioners of this form of teaching and the ideas and writings
associated with it.
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