Against the Professors, Books I-VI of Against the Learned Section 61

οἱ μὲν οὖν πλεῖστοι καὶ χαρίεντες ἔσχατον οἴονται τῆς ῥητορικῆς ἔργον εἶναι τὸ πείθειν. καὶ γὰρ οἱ περὶ τὸν Πλάτωνα εἰς τοῦτο ἀπι- δόντες δύναμιν εἰρήκασιν αὐτὴν τοῦ διὰ λόγων πείθειν, καὶ οἱ περὶ τὸν Ξενοκράτην πειθοῦς δημιουργόν, καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης (rhet. Ι 2. 1355b 26) δύναμιν τοῦ θεωρεῖν τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον πιθανόν. καὶ Ἀρίστων ὁ Κριτολάου γνώ- ριμος σκοπὸν μὲν ἐκκεῖσθαί φησιν αὐτῇ τὴν πειθώ, τέλος δὲ τὸ τυχεῖν τῆς πειθοῦς.

Most authorities, including the more refined, think that the ultimate task of rhetoric is persuasion. Plato and his followers, attending to this, called it a capacity to persuade through words; Xenocrates and his followers called it a producer of persuasion; and Aristotle (Rhetoric 1.2, 1355b26) called it a capacity to discern what may be persuasive. Ariston, a pupil of Critolaus, says that persuasion is set before it as its aim, while its end is the attainment of persuasion.

La plupart des auteurs, et les plus distingués, pensent que l’œuvre ultime de la rhétorique est de persuader. Les disciples de Platon, considérant ce point, l’ont appelée faculté de persuader au moyen de discours; ceux de Xénocrate, productrice de persuasion; Aristote (Rhétorique I, 2, 1355b26), faculté de discerner le vraisemblable possible. Ariston, disciple de Critolaos, dit que la persuasion est son but proposé, et l’obtention de la persuasion sa fin.