eristic

What eristic discipline they brought to their sciolistic quibbles, though prone to occasional bursts of rodomontade!

He forms the connecting link between the first great sophists, Protagoras and Prodicus, and the innumerable eristics who brought their name into disrepute.

He fought the combat syllogistic With so much skill and art eristic, That though you were the learned Stagyrite, At once upon the hip he had you right.

Or it lapses into "eristic"—into an argument for its own sake; or sinks into logomachy, a mere dispute about words.

To know how to proceed by regular steps from one to many, and from many to one, is just what makes the difference between eristic and dialectic.