Book I, Chapters 1-3 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1: Rhetoric is neither an art nor a science, since it is it not concerned with any specific subject, but rather with how to persuade people of the subjects of other arts. It is related to the dialectic, which is concerned with proper and valid argumentation. Rhetoric is useful in situations where dialectic would be inappropriate, like when speaking to a group of people who are either too stupid or too uneducated to understand a complicated logical argument. Rhetoric is also useful for the refinement of one's own beliefs, because it allows one to make good cases for both sides of a question. If one sees a question from multiple angles, he will best be able to find the truth and, in the future, will be able to defend his position more forcefully.

Chapter 2: Rhetoric...