After reading Gorgias/The Sophists, Plato, and Aristotle, I feel as though the theorist's approach to rhetoric aligns the most with how I am beginning to define rhetoric for myself would have to be Plato. His influence on western education has paved the way for many theorists to come. Plato had an array of achievements across a multitude of subject matters in terms of being an educator, literary artist, philosopher of ethics, politics, aesthetics, and rhetoric (Plato pp. 80). According to scholar Edward Schiappa, some evidence points to Plato's having coined the term rhetoric (Plato pp. 80).

  Plato believed that transcendent truth exists and is accessible to human beings (Plato pp.81). I agree with this belief because if one truly tries to reach for what ever truth they may be searching for, they can find it regardless if it's the truth that they want to find. In terms of rhetoric, this is important in realizing that there is always going to be some sort of truth whether we want to accept it or not. He goes into detail by exclaiming that "We can recognize it because we somehow "knew" it before our birth, when our souls were with the Divine" (Plato pp.81). I think what he means by this is that we have always known that there is a true truth, but one has to look into the soul to find said truth.