Rhetoric by Aristotle

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Rhetoric is useful for enabling truth to prevail over falsity,
for providing audiences with special knowledge,
for facilitating examination of both sides of an issue,
and for developing the capacity for persuasive argument.
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Rhetoric is concerned with matters about which men are not dedicated and for which no science presents adequate answers.
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The most effective source of persuasion is the enthymeme ;
enthymemes are compressed arguments designed to appeal to the beliefs and emotions of the audience.
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The materials of enthymemes are probabilities and signs ;
rationes esscendi are reasons,referring to probable causes,for taking something to be a fact ;
rationes cognoscendi are reasons for believing in facts because of signs.
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Speeches are of three kinds :
the political,
the forensic,and
the ceremonial.
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Phaedrus by Plato

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Lysias is reported by Phaedrus as having argued that :

" it is better to be loved by one who does not love than by one who does "

for the lover is moved by passion and can do harm.

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Socrates at first agrees that :

" love is irrational and therefore harmful ",

but on reflection he maintains that :

" madness is sometime divine,and that love is a kind of divine madness ".

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The soul is like a winged charioteer driving a team of horses ;

the charioteer,if inspired by love of the ideal,

"is reason or intelligence in control of the good horse -Will- and the bad horse -Passion-".

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Souls which have seen the most of Being,

having known the eternal forms or Ideas of all things,

pass into the bodies of philosophers,or lovers of wisdom ;

souls which are disciplined and full of wisdom return to their heavenly home.

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Good rhetoric depends on having true knowledge ;

the Sophists are mistaken in claiming that

"the appearance of knowledge is all that is necessary".

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