What does Plato say?
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Plato, like the Sophists, had his own school of thought. However, unlike the Sophists, Plato believed that there was absolute truth, but it can only be obtained (or reobtained) through dialectic. Plato and his teacher, Socrates, both went to war against the Sophists, accusing them of only using rhetoric in a negative way.
Plato believed in absolute truth, but not only that, he believed it was attainable, but only from another world. Our souls are immortal and through reincarnation, we have all had absolute truth enstilled in us before we lived on this earth in another life. It is a place where only perfect form exists and he calls this the "noumenal world" (49). This world is a perfect world, something completely different than what we know here on our earth. In this perfect world is where our souls existed before our bodies did. However, when our souls leave this world and enter our body, the truth is momentarily forgotten. So, while this absolute truth is enstilled in us, while forgotten,we cannot obtain it, or realize it is already enstilled in us, but only through dialectic. Dialectic is the questioning and answering used in order to persuade or reach a common opinion. In simple terms, we just have to tap back into what we already know, we do so by engaging in dialectic, and therefor once that is achieved we have obtained absolute truth.
To add fuel to the fire, according to Plato our souls were corrupted on their way back from the world where we attained our absolute truth. Therefor, rhetoric and our intentions we have using it, are both corrupted also. While Plato is a great theorist and philosipher, he did not believe that Rhetoric could be good. In our world, it is better to be wronged than to wrong, because when we are wronged our soul is not corrupted more.