ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a contemporary view of the problems that Plato posed, and explores the political salience of the issues. In ways similar to Plato, Aristotle is a paradigmatic figure in Western culture. His ideas of knowledge, politics, language, and society inform the conceptualization of communication and community that dominate contemporary political life. Michael Foucault’s work is a clear affirmation of a rhetorical epistemology and an excellent counter-argument to the Platonic tenor of the current political atmosphere. Aristotle was a student of Plato for twenty years. Aristotle’s view of rhetoric differs from that of the Sophists and from that of Plato. In arguing that rhetoric has practical implications, Aristotle gives to rhetoric the moral justification that was lacking in Plato’s conceptualization of knowledge. Aristotle privileges synthesis above most other things in his writing. His notion of harmony can be found, for example, in the “Golden Mean.”
