Rhetoric (Aristotle)
From Freepedia
Aristotle's Rhetoric (or "Ars Rhetorica", or "The Art of Rhetoric" or "Treatise on Rhetoric") places the discipline of public speaking in the context of all other intellectual pursuits at the time. Moreover, Aristotle is working to rehabilitate the repuation of rhetoric in light of Plato's attacks on the art as just a knack and not an art. (PP Gorg.465a) Aristotle wishes to demonstrate that "[p]roofs alone are intrinsic to the art." (PP Rh.1.1.1 or 1354a) Although we can "more easily achieve persuasion by speaking rhetorically" (1355a), the rhetoric's "function is not persuasion." (1355b)
The Definition of Rhetoric
In 1.2.1, Aristotle defines rhetoric as:
'the power to observe the persuasiveness of which any particular matter admits.'
