The Sophists have perpetuated themselves in the history of philosophy mainly through their fiercest critic Plato and his Gorgias, where Socrates makes profound accusations against the practice of the Sophists and famously states that rhetoric is part of flattery (κολακεία, 463c). This article focuses on the responses to the practices of the sophists of Plato and Aristotle, analyzing on the one hand the criticisms made about their practice, on the other hand, trying to evaluate how the responses of the two philosophers differ. Thus, taking as a starting point the polemic of the Sophists, the article approaches the discussion of the fundamental differences in the treatment of rhetoric as perceived by Plato and Aristotle. For this reason (and in order to present a more complete account of Plato's theory of rhetoric), not only Plato's Gorgias, but also his Phaedrus are incorporated into the following analysis. ) and his accusations against the sophists or rhetoricians seem to be reduced to three closely related arguments: first, that rhetoric has no subject of its own (which would make it a τέχνη); second (and most importantly) that it lacks the theoretical basis necessary for a τέχνη, and third that rhetoric is used for morally base intentions and pursuits, which corrupt the souls of citizens (503a). And, as will appear below, a discussion of these issues is offered both in Plato's theory of true rhetoric in Phaedrus as well as in Aristotle's treatment of rhetoric in his Rhetoric. Thus, the accusations presented above are also advanced latently in Phaedrus, where Plato presents his positive concept of rhetoric, but which is obviously in the middle of the article......or Plato in fact) the rhetoric “happens” (McCabe 1994: 152), sophistic practice has an impact on its audience and it is therefore necessary to be able to discover the system underlying this practice (1.1.1) which would allow it to be qualified as art. Furthermore, it seems that Aristotle's response is, in some sense, more fundamentally a response to Plato, at least in terms of serious consideration of the issues that Plato sets out in his Gorgias as well as in his Phaedrus, and the construction of one's own theory which would not suffer from the problems demonstrated in the works of Plato. Thus, Aristotle is very deeply in dialogue with Plato, accepting some of his criticisms against the Sophists (rhetoric should be fundamentally a rational practice, with morally neutral goals), while rejecting others (the appeal to the emotions plays an important role in Aristotle's philosophy). theory, for example).