What drives people to influence through language? What is persuasion, and how does it relate to truth, morality and society? Rhetoric is the art of speech that flourished and reached its peak in ancient Greece and Rome. As the art of persuasion, rhetoric has been a part of daily life and the social world from the dawn of humanity to the present. The course presents various approaches for understanding the purpose of rhetoric, its merits and dangers, from the Sophists of ancient Greece to the “New Rhetoric” of the 20th century. We will explore rhetoric as a rich interdisciplinary field, located on the intersection of philosophy, discourse analysis, pragmatics and cultural studies.