Ibn Hazm on Sophistry
Ibn Hazm’s response to sophists which many still lodge as one of their central critiques of postmodernism today:
قولكم أنه لا حقيقة للأشياء ، أحق هو ، أم باطل ؟ . فإن قالوا : حق أثبتوا حقيقة ما ، وإن قالوا ليس حقاً أقروا ببطلان قولهم وكفوا خصمهم أمرهم.
Regarding your saying that there is no truth to anything, is this [assertion of yours] true or false? If they respond by saying that it’s true, then they have affirmed that something is true [thus, refuting their own position]. [On the other hand,] if they say that it’s not true, then they have acknowledged the falseness of their own stance, and they spared their opponents [the hassle of having to refute them].