ERISTICS. – It is the art of disputation (εἰχῶ “I contend”) with the aim of overcoming the opponent; it is commonly said that it is the art. It is a degeneration of sophistry, but already Protagoras, under the hypothesis that no objective truth exists, taught the way to make the worse argument prevail over the better: τόσῳ ἡττῶ λόγον κρίνει τοσένα (some deny any connection between Protagoras’ doctrine and eristics, cf. e.g.: A. Viale, Studi su Protagora, Gubbio 1942, p. 7 sqq.).
Eristics was practically developed in the Megarian school by Eubulides and Alexinus with a series of sophistical reasonings, e.g. the liar (ὁ φευδόμεινος): if you are a liar and say that you are lying, at the same time you both lie and tell the truth.
Andrea Ferro
ERITREA – Modern works of damming on the Gæs Tesfenai river.
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ERITREA — HERMA
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more energy, and churches, workshops, and schools were built. Nor was scientific activity neglected, to which a significant contribution was made by the publication of grammars and dictionaries of indigenous languages.
On 7 February 1911 the prefecture was elevated to an apostolic vicariate. The modern Franciscan printing house in Asmara, the St Joseph Institute for half-castes in the same city, and the seminary for the formation of indigenous clergy in Cheren constitute part of the apostolic activity of the Capuchin Franciscans. At the initiative of the first apostolic vicar (Msgr C. Carrara), the Pontifical Ethiopian College was established in Rome.
In 1931 an ordinariate was created for the clergy and indigenous Catholics of the Ethiopian (Alexandrian) rite, governed by Msgr Chidane-Marvan Cassà. After the Second World War, the jurisdiction of the indigenous ordinary was temporarily extended to all Ethiopian-rite faithful in Abyssinia.
The greatest difficulty for the apostolate is posed by the opposition of the Monophysite clergy and the Muslims. See pl. XXXVIII.