Differences between citizens lead to a perfect state through an equilibrium of interests. The role of the State is to maintain the law, defend against external enemies, work to guarantee happiness of the individual citizen, and, above all, educate the youth in the ways of virtue. In the 350s, while still a member of the academy, Aristotle began offering courses in rhetoric to offset what he saw as the evil influences of Isocrates . His works which are most relevant to this course are Rhetoric and Poetics . Aristotle also believed that dialectic is an important tool in both the search for scientific truth and human truth.
Approximate truths are the stuff of rhetoric.
Rhetoric, like dialectic, is common to all men. Yet the art of persuasion like the art of reasoned discourse belongs to no one field of study. To teach in a way suitable to a popular audience To analyze both sides of a question To enable one to defend himself. Aristotle defined rhetoric as the faculty of discovering in every case the available means of persuasion. A truncated syllogism that relies on the audience's probable knowledge.