Aristotle’s Rhetorical Theory. With a Synopsis of Aristotle’s Rhetoric

Like Isocrates, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) sought a philosophical basis for rhetoric, but his conception of philosophy was more theoretical; he made the closest approach in antiquity to what today would be called a philosophical system. Rhetoric fit into that system, but not in a central position; it was like a small but necessary bone in the skeleton of a large person-an ankle or a knee.