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Aristotle vs. Plato

ARISTOTLE VS . PLATO

2008

Aristotle vs . Plato

Page 1

Rhetoric , as a form of communication , was offered by Aristotle and Plato from different views , perceptions and interpretations of words they used . While Plato was pointing upwards , showing that everything is eternal , Aristotle was pointing at the real world . Trying to imitate the teacher (Phaedrus , Aristotle wrote his dialogues (Grullos , and , in general , their writings have formed the key concepts of ancient philosophy on the one and rhetoric on the other hand . Yet , as all other theorists and philosophers , they

avoided a common practice of rhetoric stressing on the widespread error of placing arguments and demagogy instead of public speech

Both Plato and Aristotle have found rhetoric to be rather deceitful , though , they had been using it in their writings , speeches and lectures for Plato was right , when he noticed that it could be used by philosophers and scholars , because they know how to use it to bring good for a whole society , without deceitful intentions while all previous teachers offered rhetoric as a craft to arouse emotional mood of audience - these were audience 's distractions from the point , rather than rational judgments . Aristotle had dedicated the whole book to rhetoric and its influence , and at Grullos he agreed with Plato that it is an art . An ongoing struggle of Plato with rhetoric is increasing all through his dialogues : his theories of ultimate ideas and forms of reality have echoed in Republic 's idea of poetry as a part of rhetoric where the authors were presenting their goods to the greatest audience possible in to gain reputation and manipulation

Just like Plato , Aristotle had been warning the audience on the influence of rhetorical speeches , their negative and advantageous impacts , good and bad outcomes . Using the speech alone , they argued , we can accuse or defend , be just and unjust . Both of them viewed rhetoric as a method to detect aspects of a given subject which are causally connected with the intended emotion (Aristotle 's Rhetoric , para .21 Aristotle 's and Plato 's rhetorical rule was : speaker must address his subject to the specific hearer , but not to his own mind

Aristotle vs . Plato

Page 2

Plato has considered rhetoric to be dangerous from the facts of words ' manipulation of public opinion . For him , it was a social threat for it contradicted religious notions of eternal and unchangeable concepts . Plato antagonized rhetoric , believing that justice and truth should be based on facts , rather than on person 's ability to influence society nevertheless , as the time was passing by he accepted rhetoric as a reasonable and legal tool to address the people . In Gorgias , Plato denied rhetoric to be an art , because it could not be related to a specific subject , yet , later he viewed it as art that could be described in terms , based on reason and method . This is what we find in his dialogue Phaedrus : the rational investigation of futurity [ .] as it is an art which supplies from...

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