Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Given to or characterized by disputatious, often specious argument.
- noun One given to disputation or argument.
- noun The art or practice of disputation and polemics.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pertaining to disputation or controversy; controversial; disputatious; captious.
- noun One given to disputation; a controversialist.
- noun An art of logical criticism practised by the Megarics and other ancient philosophers. It has the appearance of mere captiousness and quibbling, but had a serious motive.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Archaic Controversial.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of something or someone provoking
strife ,controversy ordiscord . - noun One who makes
specious arguments; one who is isdisputatious . - noun A type of
dialogue orargument where the participants do not have any reasonable goal. The aim is to argue for the sake of conflict, and often to see who can yell the loudest.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person who disputes; who is good at or enjoys controversy
- adjective given to disputation for its own sake and often employing specious arguments
- noun the art of logical disputation (especially if specious)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Structurally defined, eristic is a zero-sum game, as is debating.
Justin Raimondo vs. Christopher Hitchens on al-Jazeera « Antiwar.com Blog 2008
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"eristic" -- into an argument for its own sake; or sinks into logomachy,
Plato and Platonism Walter Pater 1866
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If it was eristic to use "eristic," did Schwartz mean to offer word mavens a little inside joke, or — more amusingly — did he mean to send a secret signal to Buckley fans?
"I Am Lapidary But Not Eristic When I Use Big Words." Ann Althouse 2008
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I said I was going to write about the use of the word "eristic," and the reason I wanted a whole separate post about the use of the word in the Mattathias Schwartz article discussed in the previous post is that I found this 1986 article — "I Am Lapidary But Not Eristic When I Use Big Words" — by William F. Buckley Jr.
"I Am Lapidary But Not Eristic When I Use Big Words." Ann Althouse 2008
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Instead, I will use the eristic technique of posing questions and “demanding” that my interlocutors answer them.
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But do expect another burst of eristic libertarian-Republican spin.
Matthew Yglesias » You Can’t Create Jobs by “Focusing” on the Economy 2010
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Interestingly, this was one of the eristic methods used by the paid counterbloggers of the Radical Right during the 2004-2005 time frame.
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That is the heart of the distinction between eristic and dialectic.
Justin Raimondo vs. Christopher Hitchens on al-Jazeera « Antiwar.com Blog 2008
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Debating is a form of eristic, thus a variety of sophistry.
Justin Raimondo vs. Christopher Hitchens on al-Jazeera « Antiwar.com Blog 2008
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The tragedy and scandal of American legal education is that it tutors idealistic law students to become sophistical, eristic war-makers through the study of appellate litigation for that small portion of matters that will bring them to court, instead of relying on a case method instructing them on how to reconcile opposing viewpoints and settle disputes without recourse to litigation.
Wild Rice 2009
john commented on the word eristic
Does free speech tend to move toward the truth or away from it? When does it evolve into a better collective understanding? When does it collapse into the Babel of trolling, the pointless and eristic game of talking the other guy into crying “uncle�??
The New York Times, The Trolls Among Us, by Mattathias Schwartz, August 3, 2008
August 1, 2008
tonya commented on the word eristic
Hey, that's the same article that brought me here to this word! :)
December 19, 2008
tbtabby commented on the word eristic
Comes from Eris, the goddess of discord?
January 26, 2009
myth commented on the word eristic
I Am Lapidary But Not Eristic When I Use Big Words
February 16, 2009
knitandpurl commented on the word eristic
"But whatever clever eristic moves you make, there's a problem on the horizon—extreme academe is heading our way." "Will the Book Survive Generation Text?" by Carlin Romano, in The Chronicle Review
September 3, 2010
qms commented on the word eristic
We know it from lore and statistic:
A boy who’s persistently fistic
Will find legal brawling
His natural calling,
Rewarding his talents eristic.
February 24, 2018