Single Idea 2674

[catalogued under 2. Reason / C. Styles of Reason / 3. Eristic]

Full Idea

Those who compete and contend in argument aim at five objects: refutation, fallacy, paradox, solecism, and the reduction of one's opponent to a state of babbling, that is, making him say the same thing over and over again.

Clarification

A 'solecism' is an error in the use of words

Gist of Idea

Competitive argument aims at refutation, fallacy, paradox, solecism or repetition

Source

Aristotle (Sophistical Refutations [c.331 BCE], 165b15)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Sophistical Refutations, On the Cosmos etc (III)', ed/tr. Forster,E.S. /Furley,D.J. [Harvard Loeb 1955], p.17