Sophismus und seine Beurteilung im Talmud

Abstract

The general view about Talmudic thinking had been emphatically formulated by Julius Guttmann: the Talmudic sages were not influenced by Greek philosophy. This thesis must be re-examined. One of the crucial cases in this point is the attitude of the Rabbis towards Socratic and sophistical methods of argumentation. The present study shows that, although the terminus technique for sceptical thinking did not emerge in Rabbinical thought until the middle ages, the problem itself goes back to mishnaic times. It was debated under the cover of a concrete metaphorical image: «to purify the reptile with numerous arguments». Evaluating this way of thinking during the Talmudic epoch three successive periods can be distinguished: 1) a negative attitude up to 200; 2) under the influence of neo-sophistical currents, a positive evaluation, especially from 200 till 300. 3) a critical attitude distinguishing between sophistical and dialectical methods.