Aristotle and Confucius on Rhetoric and Truth

Readings of Aristotle’s and Confucius’ teachings reveal that both philosophers’ rhetorical thinking contain vital similarities which can help us understand cultural differences today. Much has been said about Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric as ‘the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion’ but few studies have focused on his depiction of rhetoric as ‘partly like dialectic, and partly like sophistical reasoning’. Yet, this Aristotelian conception of rhetoric sheds light on a similarity with Confucius’ teaching: both Confucius and Aristotle see the human understanding of the truths of things as necessarily having a dimension that is open-ended and discursive.