Single Idea 116

[catalogued under 19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric]

Full Idea

Rhetoric is a knack, because it lacks rational understanding of its object or what it dispenses (and can't explain the reason anything happens).

Gist of Idea

Rhetoric is irrational about its means and its ends

Source

Plato (Gorgias [c.378 BCE], 465a)

Book Reference

Plato: 'Gorgias', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP World's Classics 1994], p.32


A Reaction

If there are cunning people who have the wrong sort of intelligence for morality, there must be cunning users of rhetoric who know exactly what they are doing.