Rhetoric and Reason

It’s been said “it is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing which he was never reasoned into.” Thus the power of rhetoric and emotional persuasion.

I wonder if there’s an overlap between being “principled,” and being open to logical arguments against a position one holds. Relatedly, I wonder if those who base their positions on emotion could be fairly described as “unprincipled.” Finally, I wonder how these different approaches to grasping truth relate to the political stances often called “conservative,” “progressive” and “libertarian.”