Full Idea
Rhetoric is a kind of offshoot of dialectic and of the study of ethics, and is quite properly categorized as political.
Clarification
'Dialectic' is philosophical reasoning
Gist of Idea
Rhetoric is a political offshoot of dialectic and ethics
Source
Aristotle (The Art of Rhetoric [c.350 BCE], 1356a25)
Book Reference
Aristotle: 'The Art of Rhetoric', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,H.C. [Penguin 1991], p.75
A Reaction
Aristotle gives a higher status to rhetoric than Socrates and Plato did - and rightly, in my view. We have lost sight of it as a vital part of politics, and philosophers must fight for virtue in rhetoric, which requires right reason and fine principles.