Sophisterとは 意味・読み方・使い方

名詞

sophister (複数形 sophisters)

1. A sophist.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:

     A subtle traitor needs no sophister.

   • 1612, Richard Hooker, A Learned Discourse of Iustification, Workes, and How the Foundation of Faith is Overthrowne, Oxford, p. 62,^[1]

     […] I wil not be afraid to saie vnto a Pope or Cardinall in this plight, be of good comfort, we haue to doe with a mercifull God; rather to make the best of a little which we hold well, and not with a captious sophister, which gathereth the worst out of everie thing, wherein wee erre.

   • 1783, David Hume (ascribed), Essays on Suicide, and the Immortality of the Soul, London: M. Smith, Letter 114, p. 74,^[2]

     The same sophisters make it a question whether life can ever be an evil? but when we consider the multitude of errors, torments, and vices, with which it abounds, one would rather be inclined to doubt whether it can ever be a blessing.

   • 1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter 13”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 926803915, page 295:

     I remember when you were a boy you wished to make your fine new whip a present to old aunt Peggy, merely because she admired it; and now, with like unreflecting and unappropriate liberality, you would resign your beloved to a smoke-dried young sophister, who cares not one of the hairs which it is his occupation to split for all the daughters of Eve.