Aristotle vs Plato: Who Is More Responsible For Contemporary Discourse

As I scanned through multiple scholarly articles about Aristotle and Plato's lives and views I thought I would never find what I was looking for. Many of the articles used jargon I had heard only in high school during my honors philosophy class.

Plato was Aristotle's teacher who felt that "every rational human being, given a choice, will prefer a life that is moderately thoughtful and moderately pleasant to a life that is utterly thoughtless or utterly pleasureless." Plato valued the truth and knowledge in rhetoric. He didn't feel that it was okay to persuade someone just for personal gain but that it should benefit society as a whole. Since truth can not be refuted it helps the argument that is being made. To Plato, you must appeal to beliefs in order to change emotions.

Aristotle valued the truthfulness of the rhetoric, just as his mentor Plato did. He viewed emotion arousal as a technical proof of rhetoric. To Aristotle, "emotions are intelligent and discriminating parts of the personality, closely related to beliefs of a certain sort and therefore responsive to cognitive modification." Facts are facts; however, people have different 'truths' that can be changed. If I feel I've been disrespected, my truth is that I have been wronged, but if I speak to the person that has wronged me and found that there was no malice or negligence on their part, my truth can be altered.

I think Aristotle has the most influence on contemporary discourse due to the emphasize on emotional responses. Right after September 11th Americans were hurt, angry, and confused. Aristotle speaks about emotions having a target, and if done correctly rhetoric will change that target. While Americans were emotionally vulnerable the government used rhetoric to gain support of upcoming wars: the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Once American anger faded and opinions changed Barack Obama's campaign slogan appealed to the change the public wanted to see.
Even if something is completely logical and truthful, if it is not delivered in a way that will eventually affect emotions people will not be moved to act.