ERRONEOUS AND SOPHISTICAL ARGUMENTS.

75. False Reasoning. -- Error proceeds from the basis or from the form: from the basis when we take for true and certain premises which are erroneous or doubtful; from the form when, consciously or unconsciously, we draw from the premises a conclusion which does not logically flow from them.

In the former case the false reasoning is called an erroneous argument; in the latter case it is called a paralogism or a sophism. The paralogism is a false reasoning of which we ourselves are the dupes; the sophism, in the current acceptation, implies the intention of deceiving.