Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit the Shop.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Articles

Back to the Sophists

Nana Ariel corrects the record and the modern application of Sophistry.

The ancient Greek Sophists are looming in the twenty-first century, especially, it seems, in relation to Donald Trump. Patrick Lee Miller, an American philosopher who knows a thing or two about the ancient Greeks, was reminded of Plato’s critique of his Sophist contemporaries, remarking that “Such disregard for truth, such deference to popular views, such peddling of bulls**t, characterized Trump’s long campaign for the presidency.” Writer Mackenzie Karbon also declared “the rise of modern sophism in the Trump era.” Law professor Frank O. Bowman III called Trump’s impeachment defense “a well-crafted piece of sophistry that cherry-picks sources and ignores inconvenient history and precedent.

…