“What is rhetoric?”  This is a question with many answers and was the first question we were asked in class. To me, the answer was as simple as persuasion. That’s it, one word. What I did not realize was that this class was going to be the opportunity to explore the question further. I asked myself questions like, how did rhetoric come to be, how has it evolved, and what are the theories regarding it? The most fascinating answer to this question came from the time of the ancient Greece between the Sophists and Plato. Both agreed rhetoric existed, but they disagreed on several of the key components of rhetoric itself and who should be able to practice it.  

The first and most significant question to me was who should be able to practice rhetoric. Not only as this question interesting in general but it is something that is directly involved with the abilities I have today. This was one of the main things that the two key groups I am focusing on, the Sophists and Plato (Philosophers) were divided on.   

The sophists were a group of nomadic teachers who traveled to new cultures with the intention of teaching those who could pay about rhetoric and how to practice it effectively. The philosophers, in works such as Gorgias, initially denied that rhetoric was even in art. Later in Phaedrus they agreed it was an art but only when practiced by Philosophers. What men such as Plato feared was that the sophists were giving the public much more than the ability to be eloquent. They feared that by giving them this new-found skill people would be able to persuade others for selfish reasons.  

The philosophers main concern was that people would be using this new found “power” in a negative way. They believed that they would do this by preaching beliefs that they held in order to fulfill their own agendas. The danger comes when they do this without educating themselves properly. This belief stemmed heavily from their belief in the “Big T” truth and the “Little t” truth.  “Big T” truth refers to the ultimate divine truth of the gods. This was the support to the Philosophers used when debating whether the skill of rhetoric should become public. They believed that because they were philosophers they were the only ones who possessed this special connection, thus making them the only ones who had the knowledge to actually speak publicly.  

“Little t” truth refers to a universal and relative truth that is ever changing. The sophists did not believe in one entity having the power of “every seeing knowledge” because of their relationships with various cultures. Because they had seen so many different cultures interact they had seen many different beliefs actually, play out.  Now that it has been made clear what these divisions wear, I am going to focus on the significance they played in where we are today.  

Imagine a world where the only people who were taught rhetorical techniques (or even know what rhetoric was) were our religious leaders and our own modern-day equivalents of philosophers. I.e. politicians. That would put “common” people, such as myself and those currently sitting around me, at a great disadvantage in our influence that we have in our lives and the world around us.  This is what would have happened had  

Next Paragraph: Ways we went about learning, understanding and practicing this knowledge