- Native Athenian from a well-to-do family
- Argued that rhetoric was the stuff of practical civic matters (house and state management)
- He disliked the abstruse musing of Plato, because searching for essential truth was a waste
- He had problems with the ancient Sophists (including his teacher Gorgias) because they engaged in pointless rhetorical performances (like Gorgias’s Encomium of Helen
- He saw rhetorical success as coming from natural talent, real practice, and education in oratory principles in that order
Against the Sophists- Rhetoric isn't fully teachable
- Teachers can give what is teachable and model discourse
Antidosis- We don't seem t have a science of certainty, so we should aim at finding the best course
- We should focus on practical matters of home and state governance
- The orator in part takes his identity from the needs of the audiencee
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