Miscellanies 1.8.39
Summary: Sophistry creates false opinions that seem true; Plato and Aristotle condemned it; rhetoric aims at persuasion, eristic at victory, sophistry at astonishment, and none at truth.
Greek text · Stählin 2:25–26
Ἡ δὲ σοφιστικὴ τέχνη, ἣν ἐζηλώκασιν Ἕλληνες, δύναμίς ἐστι φανταστική, διὰ λόγων δοξῶν ἐμποιητικὴ ψευδῶν ὡς ἀληθῶν· παρέχει γὰρ πρὸς μὲν πειθὼ τὴν ῥητορικήν, πρὸς τὸ ἀγωνιστικὸν δὲ τὴν ἐριστικήν, αἱ τοίνυν τέχναι αὗται ἐὰν μὴ μετὰ φιλοσοφίας γένωνται, βλαβερώτεραι παντί που εἶεν ἄν. ἄντικρυς γοῦν ὁ Πλάτων κακοτεχνίαν προσεῖπεν τὴν σοφιστικὴν ὅ τε Ἀριστοτέλης ἑπόμενος κλεπτικήν τινα αὐτὴν ἀποφαίνεται, ἅτε τὸ ὅλον τῆς σοφίας ἔργον πιθανῶς ὑφαιρουμένην καὶ ἐπαγγελλομένην σοφίαν ἣν οὐκ ἐμελέτησεν. ἐν βραχεῖ δὲ εἰπεῖν, καθάπερ τῆς ῥητορικῆς ἀρχὴ μὲν τὸ πιθανόν, ἔργον δὲ τὸ ἐπιχείρημα καὶ τέλος ἡ πειθώ. οὕτω τῆς ἐριστικῆς ἀρχὴ μὲν τὸ δόξαν, ἔργον δὲ τὸ ἀγώνισμα καὶ τέλος ἡ νίκη. τὸν αὐτὸν γὰρ τρόπον καὶ τῆς σοφιστικῆς ἀρχὴ μὲν τὸ φαινόμενον, ἔργον δὲ διττόν, τὸ μὲν ἐκ ῥητορικῆς διεξοδικόν φαινόμενον, τὸ δὲ ἐκ διαλεκτικῆς ἐρωτητικόν, τέλος δὲ αὐτῆς ἡ ἔκπληξις. ἥ τε αὖ θρυλουμένη κατὰ τὰς διατριβὰς διαλεκτικὴ γύμνασμα φιλοσόφου περὶ τὸ ἔνδοξον δείκνυται ἀντιλογικῆς ἕνεκεν δυνάμεως· οὐδαμοῦ δʼ ἐν τούτοις ἡ ἀλήθεια.
English · Claude translation
The sophistic art, which the Greeks have zealously pursued, is a power of appearances, producing through words false opinions as though true. For it provides rhetoric for persuasion and eristic for contention; and so these arts, unless joined with philosophy, would be harmful to everyone. At any rate Plato plainly called sophistry an evil art, and Aristotle, following him, declares it a kind of thievery, since it plausibly steals the whole work of wisdom and professes a wisdom it has not practiced. In short, as the beginning of rhetoric is the plausible, its work the argument, and its end persuasion, so the beginning of eristic is opinion, its work the contest, and its end victory. In the same way the beginning of sophistry is the apparent; its work is twofold, the continuous discourse that comes from rhetoric and the questioning that comes from dialectic; and its end is astonishment. And the dialectic so talked of in the schools is shown to be the exercise of a philosopher about what is probable, for the sake of skill in contradiction; but nowhere in these is the truth.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Compare Plato, Gorgias 463a–465c, and Aristotle, Sophistical Refutations 165a.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.8.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/8/39/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.8.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/8/39/).
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