"The protreptic text, the so-called protreptikós, is an invitation to produce one's own knowledge. So one might easily think, at first glance, that protreptic was nothing more than rhetoric, and it is probably correct to speak of a particular sort of rhetoric. For protreptic texts use every possible rhetorical means with the explicit goal of engaging with a discipline in one's own way. And that is exactly the point of significant difference from rhetorical structures exclusively concerned to bring an audience to a particular point of view: in the protreptikós, language serves to talk an audience into persuading itself. ... The protreptikós does not argue for a particular persuasion, but directs attention to the ways one can achieve certainty for oneself."

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