I read a fascinating column in the Chicago Tribune about our Supreme Court's decision on Monday to support affirmative action in making decisions for admission to universities. It was a scholarly discussion of what "conservative" really means, based on one of the great conservative thinkers, Edmund Burke, the 18th century British statesman. The article made me realize that, at least in the U.S., we often use the term "conservative" incorrectly.

However, this thread is about "sophiser"; sorry for the aside above. David Strauss's article (he teaches constitutional law at the University of Chicago) states, "Revolutionary thinkers--people who want to exalt their fine-sounding abstract ideals over the humble, day-to-day lessons of experience--are, conservatives like Burke said, 'sophisters' and 'disclaimers'."

Now, does "sophister" or "sophist" mean one who is skilled in devious argumentation, as dictionary.com says? Yet, another much more positive definition is "a scholar or thinker." Perhaps you can see why I get confused by various definitions in the dictionary!

I'd never heard the word "sophister" although I assumed it was related to "sophistry" meaning a plausible but misleading argument. On looking up "sophister" though I find it to mean

"a second year undergraduate at some British Universities" and that a person who uses sophistry is in fact a sophist though sophister is given as having a rare secondary meaning as an alterntive to sophist.

Non curo ! Si metrum no habet, non est poema.

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

I had never heard of sophister (although I knew of sophistry).

As it seems to have a scholastic connection, could it have any connection with "sophomore" - which is, I understand, something to do with the US education system (although I have no idea what)?

Richard English

Richard, you are quite correct. According to Dictionary.com a sophister can either be another word for sophist, or a second-year student at an English university. A sophomore is a second-year student at an American university.

The word sophist, of course, has two distinct meanings. Firstly, it is the name of a group of fifth-century B.C. Greek philosophers and teachers. Since their style of reasoning was convoluted and superficial, the name became applied to anyone who used a specious argument to further a cause.

The root of these words is of course the Greek sophos, meaning clever or wise.