what does your sign in name mean..

[Sophist]

We'll consult a few dictionaries:

soph·ist
n.
1.
a. One skilled in elaborate and devious argumentation.
b. A scholar or thinker.
2. Sophist Any of a group of professional fifth-century b.c. Greek philosophers and teachers who speculated on theology, metaphysics, and the sciences, and who were later characterized by Plato as superficial manipulators of rhetoric and dialectic.

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1. ancient Greek philosopher: a member of a school of ancient Greek professional philosophers who were expert in and taught the skills of rhetoric, argument, and debate, but were criticized for specious reasoning. The sophists were active before and during the time of Socrates and Plato, who were their main critics.


2. somebody using clever talk to deceive: a deceptive person who offers clever-sounding but flawed arguments or explanations


[Mid-16th century. Via Latin sophista < Greek sophistḗs "master of a craft, man clever in practical affairs," also "cheat" < sophos "skilled in a craft, clever, wise"]

[Sophist]

I've been called the Sophist for a long time for two reasons:

It started way back in my first honors classes, when they would throw me in to debates cold to argue for the side I was adamantly opposed to. I would always still get into it because I love debating in person so much that I play the devil's advocate, and I could come up with the oddest stuff to just run circles around a much better prepared opponent, and always got them flustered enough that i could bamboozle the crowd and judges even when (as was often the case in the cold debates) I felt the other person's actual arguments were a million times stronger and more correct. It is kind of scary, but people always tell me I HAVE to be a lawyer (shudders).


And also because my specialty was writing persuasion/argumentation speeches and essays using the exact same quotes and figures from the exact same sources to prove and argue two completely opposing positions, and being able to do it in a manner that my professors and study groups were wholly at a loss as to which viewpoint was the one I really supported.