Sophist

A sophist was a teacher who used philosophy and rhetoric to teach virtue or excellence.

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I came across this term while looking for an "S" word to replace "Thinker"...

Storyteller. Writer. Thinker.

Storyteller. Scribe. S..... Sophist? Scholar? Seeker? Seer? Sage? Standard Bearer?

Still pondering...

What's interesting to me is that the term Sophist later became a derogatory term, to refer to someone who takes money and uses logical fallacies to deceives you.

The reason I find this fascinating... I've heard so many people get mad at a Kenneth Copeland or Joel Osteen because a lot of money flows through their hands. They get called heretics by the religious Pharisees of our day. But I've worked/volunteered around Kenneth Copeland, on his property for three years. I have more respect for him than most Church leaders, by a LONG shot.

They look at the money and think it's inherently evil. Which makes no sense.

Many of those same people might pay to go to a Tony Robbins event and not blink an eye. And they'd happily fork out loads of money to go.

Somehow, it's okay to have the knowledge and ask for money in return for that knowledge, unless it's related to the Bible?

I check my own heart and find this thinking still there to a degree, but I don't fully know why.

This specialty, like any other, still requires a great deal of time and investment and often more hardship than other careers. Why shouldn't money flow into the hands of someone who's laid aside more than most consistently?

Anywho, if the goal of communication is to be understood, and there's already a common negative connotation to Sophist, I guess I'll keep looking.

Too bad, I liked the word at it's base level.


Define: 

Sophist (n.)

A sophist (Greek: σοφιστής, sophistes) was a specific kind of teacher in ancient Greece, in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Many sophists specialized in using the tools of philosophy and rhetoric, though other sophists taught subjects such as music, athletics, and mathematics. In general, they claimed to teach arete ("excellence" or "virtue", applied to various subject areas), predominantly to young statesmen and nobility.

In modern usage, sophism, sophist and sophistry are used disparagingly. A sophism is a fallacious argument, especially one used deliberately to deceive.[24][25] A sophist is a person who reasons with clever but fallacious and deceptive arguments.[26][27]

sophisticated (adj.)

c. 1600, "mixed with a foreign substance, impure; no longer simple or natural," past-participle adjective from sophisticate (v.). Of persons, with a positive sense, "worldly-wise, discriminating, cultured," from 1895.

sophistication (n.)

early 15c., "use of sophistry; fallacious argument intended to mislead; adulteration; an adulterated or adulterating substance," from Medieval Latin sophisticationem (nominative sophisticatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of sophisticare "adulterate, cheat quibble," from Latin sophisticus "of sophists," from Greek sophistikos "of or pertaining to a sophist," from sophistes "a wise man, master, teacher" (see sophist). Greek sophistes came to mean "one who gives intellectual instruction for pay," and at Athens, contrasted with "philosopher," it became a term of contempt.

Meaning "worldly wisdom, refinement, discrimination" is attested from 1850.


Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!

Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com

Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ