eristic
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- adjective Given to or characterized by disputatious, often specious argument.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- adjective Of something or someone provoking strife, controversy or discord.
- noun One who makes specious arguments; one who is is disputatious.
Examples
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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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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.
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Just writing an article and using a $10 word, by itself, is not eristic.
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To ask whether Zeno was in fact a sophist, a practitioner of antilogic, an eristic controversialist, or a proper dialectician is to some extent inappropriate, for these designations all acquired their normal meaning and range of application only after Zeno's time.
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At the office, I deal with the new crisis, and am struck by the utterly eristic and specious arguments that I am subjected to.
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But when a man begins to get older, he will no longer be guilty of such insanity; he will imitate the dialectician who is seeking for truth, and not the eristic, who is contradicting for the sake of amusement; and the greater moderation of his character will increase instead of diminishing the honour of the pursuit.
Note
The word 'eristic' comes from a Greek word meaning 'to wrangle' or 'to quarrel'.
