Ethos, Pathos, Logos

1
Ethos, Pathos, Logos
2
Aristotles Proofs
3
Ethos

• what the audience sees in the speaker
• appeal based on the character of the speaker
• is about how the speaker or author presents
  himself or herself. In other words, what are the
  speaker's qualifications for making this
  argument?

4
May be affected by

• tone of voice, gesture, stories told (or untold),
  institutional roles, reputation
• Is he humble, sarcastic, arrogant, scientific,
  etc.
• We make judgments all the time about people's
  ethos.

5
What is the Difference?
Think about going into your doctors office and
seeing a medical degree from Harvard University
versus seeing a degree from a no-name university.
6
The same is true about an author of a piece of
writing. The clues are more subtle but they are
there if you look for them.
7
3 Categories of Ethos to help develop high ethos

• phronesis - practical skills wisdom
• arete - virtue, goodness
• eunoia - goodwill towards the audience.

8
3 violations of Ethos

• The speaker has a direct interest in the outcome
  of the debate (e.g. a person pleading innocence
  of a crime)
• The speaker has a vested interest or ulterior
  motive in the outcome of the debate
• The speaker has no expertise (e.g. a lawyer
  giving a speech on space flight carries less
  gravity than an astronaut giving the same speech).

9

• CAN YOU THINK OF ANY EXAMPLES OF ETHOS-DRIVEN
  RHETORIC?

10
Pathos
11
Pathos

• appeals to the audiences sense of identity,
  self-interest, and/or emotion
• how the audience feels about what the speaker is
  saying or doing

12
May be affected by

• word choice, urgency of rhythm, shock-, fear-,
  and/or pity-inducing examples
• How is the audience (of which you are a part)
  being manipulated?
• Think is the speaker/writer simply playing
  me?

13

• CAN YOU THINK OF ANY EXAMPLES OF PATHOS-DRIVEN
  RHETORIC?

14
Ways to accomplish Pathos

• by metaphor or storytelling
• by a general passion in the delivery and an
  overall amount of emotional items in the text of
  the speech, or in writing.

15
If the writing is a story, and the story is very
sad and you are sitting at home crying while you
read it, are you going to be more sympathetic to
the argument that is being made?
16
Commercials such as those put out by MADD or SADD
are heartwrenching when they show pictures or
talk about children who were killed by drunk
drivers.
17
Does the emotion make you more sympathetic?
18
Of course. You can still believe the argument is
valid, but it is important to realize that your
emotions are being manipulated.
19
Other areas where this happens is during very
patriotic speeches in which you can almost
imagine hearing the National Anthem playing in
the background.
20
If you can imagine music being played in the
background when you are reading or listening to a
speech, pathos is probably involved.
21
The argument may or may not be valid, but you are
being manipulated by your emotions. Be suspicious
of these arguments in general because our
emotions are funny things they can move us to
accept a very illogical argument.
22
Fear and Pity

• Within pathos, Aristotle makes a distinction
  between fear appeals and pity appeals.
• He classifies as fear appeals those which suggest
  or state physical harm or death, loss, or
  deprivation of freedom.
• He classifies as pity appeals those which suggest
  or state "that someone or something helpless is
  being harmed."

23
Logos
24
Logos

• Appeal based on logic/reason
• The reason and structure in arguments
• Often involves numbers, polls, and other
  mathematical or scientific data
• Does not just mean logic.

25
May be affected by

• use of comparisons, factual evidence (NUMBERS),
  arrangement of ideas to reach conclusions
• Think--does the logic follow? Are the statistics
  skewed or unrepresentative?

26
Advantages of logos

• Data is hard to manipulate, so it is harder to
  argue against a logos argument.
• Logos makes the speaker look prepared and
  knowledgeable to the audience, enhancing ethos.

27

• CAN YOU THINK OF ANY EXAMPLES OF LOGOS-DRIVEN
  RHETORIC?

28
Logos

• Two types of appeal to reason
• deductive
• inductive

29

• Deductive argument--begins with a
  generalization and moves toward a specific
  conclusion.
• A famous example used by Aristotle himself
• All men are mortal. (Generalization)
• Socrates was a man. (Specific case)
• Socrates is mortal. (Conclusion about the
  specific case)

30

• Inductive argument-begins with pieces of specific
  evidence and draws a general conclusion.
• ex. Senator Kennedy argued, in Georgia, blacks
  who killed whites received the death penalty 16.7
  percent of the time, while whites who killed
  blacks received the death penalty only 4.2
  percent of the time.

31
Common Ground

• Logos also is about where the author and audience
  members meet. Where is the common ground between
  the two?
• Both sides of a discussion must have common
  ground on which they can build in order to have a
  discussion.

32
Hot Topic Issues

• Major issues, such as abortion or capital
  punishment, are problematic issues to discuss
  because neither side can find any common ground
  with the other side.
• Therefore, no discussion can take place. These
  issues will never be resolved between the two
  binaries because no common ground exists between
  absolute black and white issues.

33
Aristotle's artistic proofs are thousands of
years old, however, they still have practical
uses. They (1) allow the audience to understand
public speeches at a greater depth and (2) allow
the speaker to shape and mold her or his speech
to one of success. In addition, according to
Aristotle, they define the study of rhetoric. I
find Aristotle's artistic proofs to be one of the
most useful contributions to the study of
rhetoric.
34
Sources

• https//segue.atlas.uiuc.edu/index.php?sitescfol
  ey2section4180actionsite
• http//otal.umd.edu/mikej/supplements/ethoslogosp
  athos.html