Aristotle - Philosophy and Ethics

Philosophy

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is a tool for practical debate. It is a means for persuading a general audience using probable knowledge to resolve practical issues.

Aristotle criticised the sophists for using rhetoric only to persuade their audience without having any good arguments.

In Aristotle's treatises rhetoric was one of the three key elements of philosophy, along with logic and dialectic. He understood rhetoric as the counterpoint of dialectic. These elements together create a system of persuasion based on knowledge instead of manipulation of emotion.