ABSTRACT
Persuasion is a human relationship of great universality and significance. It is surprising, therefore, that it has been so much neglected, both by social scientists and by moral philosophers. Nowhere in the social sciences do we find anything that looks like a general theory of persuasion as a social relationship. In the study of rhetoric and in the underworld of what used to be called speech departments, we find a certain classical literature, going back at least to Aristotle, on the art of persuasion, the various techniques which may be used, and so on. We find something of this also in modern psychology, especially in applied psychology. What we do not find is much discussion of the role of persuasion in the total social system, or even its role in the total decision-making process, either in the organization or in the person.
