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Pseudology and Pseudomancy

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(ψευδολογία , ψευδομαντεία from λόγος, speech, and μαντεία , prediction) are in the mutual relation of species and genus. The former refers to false and deceptive speaking in general; the latter to the foretelling of future events. in which, in this sense, there is neither truth nor wisdom. The same relation exists between the pseudologist and the pseudomantist, called also pseudo-prophet. (See PROPHET). Comp. also Lucian's Pseudomantis, by which title he designates an impostor of his time called Alexander (Alexander Impostor). Pseudomania would be simulated folly (μανία ); for mental diseases can be simulated as well as bodily. Both pretences are mean, the former still more than the latter; for he who pretends to be mentally diseased plays the part of a being deprived of reason and freedom. Criminals sometimes recur to this artifice to escape the responsibility of their actions; lawyers like, in desperate cases, to resort to the plea of insanity. The judge must, where such an excuse is attempted, take the advice of the physicians, who have to examine how far such a plea is warranted by the facts, else this mode of defence would lead to the impunity of all criminals, even the most dangerous. The words ψευδομανία and ψευδομαντεία are both unknown to antiquity, although ψευδόμαντις was employed. Instead of ψευδολογία, the ancients used also ψευδομυθία (from; μῦθος = λόγος ); hence it woult be a mistake if we employed the latter word for false fables, although myth is synonymous with fable.