Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties
Division (I) Formation of Ideas
Section IV. Reasoning Processes

477. [Absence of Reasoning.] Intuition. Sophistry. [Specious Reasoning.]

   NOUN:INTUITION, instinct, association; presentiment; rule of thumb.
  SOPHISTRY, paralogy, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion, mental reservation; chicane, chicanery; quiddit [obs.], quiddity; mystification; special pleading; speciousness &c. adj.; nonsense [See Absurdity]; word fence, tongue fence; overrefinement, hairsplitting, quibbling &c. v.
  false -, fallacious -, specious -, vicious- reasoning; begging of the question, petitio principii [L.], ignoratio elenchi [L.]; post hoc ergo propter hoc [L.]; non sequitur [L.], ignotum per ignotius [L.].
  misjudgment [See Misjudgment]; false teaching [See Misteaching].
  SOPHISM, solecism, paralogism; quibble, quirk, elench, elenchus, fallacy, quodlibet [L.], subterfuge, shift, subtlety, quillet [archaic]; inconsistency, antilogy; “a delusion, a mockery, and a snare” [Denman]; claptrap, mere words; “lame and impotent conclusion” [Othello].
  meshes -, cobwebs- of sophistry; flaw in an argument; weak point, bad case.
  SOPHIST, casuist, paralogist.
   VERB:JUDGE INTUITIVELY, judge by intuition; hazard a proposition, talk at random.
  PERVERT, quibble; equivocate, mystify, evade, elude; gloss over, varnish; misteach [See Misteaching]; mislead (error) [See Error]; cavil, refine, subtilize, split hairs; misrepresent (lie) [See Falsehood].
  reason ill, reason falsely &c. adj.; misjudge [See Misjudgment]; paralogize.
  BEG THE QUESTION, reason in a circle, cut blocks with a razor, beat about the bush, play fast and loose, blow hot and cold, prove that black is white and white black, travel out of the record, parler à tort et à travers [F.], put oneself out of court, not have a leg to stand on.
   ADJECTIVE:INTUITIVE, instinctive, impulsive; independent of -, anterior to- reason; gratuitous, hazarded; unconnected.
  ILLOGICAL, unreasonable, false, unsound, invalid; unwarranted, not following, incongruous, inconsequent, inconsequential; inconsistent; absonous [obs.], absonant, unscientific; untenable, inconclusive, incorrect; fallacious, fallible; groundless, unproved.
  SPECIOUS, sophistic or sophistical, jesuitic or jesuitical, casuistic or casuistical, paralogistic, paralogical; deceptive, illusive, illusory; hollow, plausible, ad captandum [L.], evasive; irrelevant [See Irrelation].
  WEAK, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague, irrational; nonsensical (absurd) [See Absurdity]; foolish (imbecile) [See Imbecility. Folly]; frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling; finespun, overrefined.
  at the end of one’s tether, au bout de son latin [F.].
   ADVERB:INTUITIVELY &c. adj.; by intuition.
  ILLOGICALLY &c. adj.
   QUOTATIONS:

1. Non constat.
2. That goes for nothing.
3. My dear madam, nonsense can only be defended by nonsense.—Johnson—Boswell’s Life.