Rhetoric theorists

Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.

Plato ( ; Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of Classical Athens who is most commonly considered the foundational thinker of the Western philosophical tradition. An innovator of the literary dialogue and dialectic forms, Plato influenced all the major areas of theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy, and was the founder of the Academy, a philosophical school in Athens where Plato taught the collection of philosophical theories that would later become known as Platonism.

Christian theologian, philosopher, and saint (354–430)

American polymath and statesman (1706–1790)

British writer and journalist (1903–1950)

English philosopher and statesman (1561–1626)

English philosopher (1588–1679)

English poet and civil servant (1608–1674)

French philosopher (1926–1984)

British playwright (1930–2008)

Protagoras ( ; ; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato credits him with inventing the role of the professional sophist.

English historian and politician (1737–1794)

French philosopher (1930–2004)

Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar (1911–1980)

Gorgias ( ; ; – ) was an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger. W. K. C. Guthrie writes that "Like other Sophists, he was an itinerant that practiced in various cities and giving public exhibitions of his skill at the great pan-Hellenic centers of Olympia and Delphi, and charged fees for his instruction and performances. A special feature of his displays was to ask miscellaneous questions from the audience and gi

American writer (1925–2012)

German reformer (1497-1560)

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; – ) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilian ( ), although the alternate spellings of Quintillian and Quinctilian are occasionally seen, the latter in older texts.

Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian and jurist

Isocrates (; ; 436–338 BC) was an ancient Greek rhetorician, one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works.

1st-century BC Greek historian and teacher

Spanish philosopher

Danish Lutheran pastor, theologian, hymn-writer and educator (1783-1872)

French philosopher

Belgian literary theorist (1919–1983)

American philosopher and literary critic (1897–1993)

Belgian philosopher of law (1912-1984)

British philosopher

French philologist and philosopher (1947-)

Canadian philosopher and theologian (1904–1984)

French scholar, scientist and politician (1742-1809)

2nd century Greek rhetorician

Italian philosopher (1887-1910)

American academic

American writer (1793–1876)

ancient Greek rhetorician

Apsines of Gadara (; fl. 3rd century AD) was a Greek rhetorician. He was a native of the Hellenised city of Gadara, whose ruins stand today at the border of Jordan with Syria and Israel. Apsines went on to study at Smyrna and taught at Athens, gaining such a reputation that he was raised to the consulship by the emperor Maximinus. He was a rival of Fronto of Emesa, and a friend of Philostratus, the author of the Lives of the Sophists, who praises his wonderful memory and accuracy.

3rd or 4th century Greek rhetorician and commentator

group of 20th-century Belgian semioticians

Norwegian author (1931–2005)

American scholar (1910–1963)

Belgian academic (1961–2021)

Prussian reformed theologian and philosopher

thumb|"No, I swear, I'm not telling you this to flatter you, you have a true friend like no other. I will tell you that if you don't know it, you are the only one. Mme Verdurin was telling me this again on the last day ()", Marcel Proust, Du côté de chez Swann.

Italian writer

Jesuit, Spanish professor and author

American professor of communication

American cognitive scientist

French Jesuit (1583-1651)

Canadian writer

American philosopher (1921–2004)

ancient Greek rhetorician

Philosopher/ontologist/technical writer

English diplomat, judge, and privy councillor in the government of Elizabeth I (1524-1581)

Belgian academic (1899–1987)

13th-century English linguist and grammarian

American philosopher

English literary critic

American philosopher, born 1949