Aristotle nowhere puts forward a developed aesthetic, nor even a complete theory of literary criticism. Yet despite the gaps and limitations of his discussion and the extreme obscurity of some of his ideas, he went further in his analysis of the aims and nature of poetry than any earlier writer. His defence of the usefulness of poetry provided an important antidote to Plato's criticisms and rejection of it, and his work in this field was to prove enormously influential.

The ‘Rhetoric’

He discusses literary style in two treatises, the Poetics and the less well known Rhetoric. To deal briefly with the Rhetoric first, that work, as its name suggests, is an analysis of the art of public speaking. The scope of rhetoric and its relation to philosophy had been topics of some dispute which Plato had discussed at length in the Gorgias and the Phaedrus. Aristotle defines it as the faculty of discovering the possible means of persuasion with regard to any subject (Rh. 1355 b26f.). It is a counterpart to or offshoot of dialectic, which he had discussed in the Topics. Both deal with probabilities, and as such they are both contrasted with the study of strict demonstration or scientific proof, the subject-matter of the Analytics. But while dialectic proceeds by question and answer, the orator uses continuous speech, exercising his skill in three main fields: (1) political, (2) legal, and (3) ceremonial, oratory.