About
Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC) was an important Greek philosopher. One of the most influential thinkers in Western culture, he was a disciple of the philosopher Plato. Aristotle developed an entire philosophical system in which he pondered on virtually all existing subjects, such as geometry, physics, metaphysics, botany, zoology, astronomy, medicine, psychology, ethics, drama, poetry, rhetoric, mathematics, and logic. Being one of the oldest and most truly international human disciplines, Rhetoric, like grammar, logic, and poetics, is not an a priori science. The great philosopher Aristotle was one of the first thinkers to study and elaborate on the foundations of Rhetoric, and this homonymous work systematically and deeply encompasses this theme. Rhetoric is a form of communication, a discipline that deals with the principles and techniques of communication. Not all communication, but that which has persuasive purposes. Aristotle's Rhetoric is not the product of the mere idealization of principles born with him and by him, agreed upon to persuade and convince others. It is, instead, the product of the consummated experience of skillful orators, the elaboration resulting from the analysis of their strategies, the codification of precepts born from experience with the aim of helping others to exercise correctly in the techniques of persuasion.