Retoryka w służbie przywódcy politycznego
The rhetoric in the service of political leaders

Summary/Abstract: A dispute ignited at the dawn of the Athenian democracy about the role of the rhetoric in the activities of political leaders did not fade out completely at the end of that regime. Its course we can track inter alia on the pages of texts written by Plato, Cicero and Machiavelli. Plato speaks against the rhetoric sophistically understood as a tool serving to manipulate other people. Cicero concludes that the use of rhetorical techniques in order to take control over listener’s will is allowed only for a politician , whose ethical attitude is the guarantee of their proper use. However, from the Machiavelli’s perspective, the rhetoric retrieves its sophistic character - to serve political leaders to fully implement their plans. It appears then that on account of different perceptions of the state’s reality, which arise from the particular inclination to attach various levels of importance to the moral sense of individuals in power, these authors come to contrastive conclusions, and the discussion initiated by the ancient Greeks goes back to the starting point centuries later.

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