Aristotle

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Aristotles Ideas on Rhetoric

• Logos, Pathos, and Ethos

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Aristotle

• Greek philosopher
• Lived 384-322 B. C.
• Expressed (among many other ideas) a theory on
  rhetoric

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Aristotles Definition of Rhetoric

• Rhetoric
• The art of discovering all
• the available means of persuasion
• Notice the positive connotations of the
  term in Aristotles theory vs. the negative
  connotations often associated with the term
  rhetoric nowadays.

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The Rhetorician as Artist

• According to Aristotle, certain types of
  arguments were non-artistic. By this, he meant
  that the speaker did not have to discover or
  invent them. Such non-artistic proofs included
  witnesses, oaths, or torture. In Aristotles
  view, these proofs fell outside the art of
  rhetoric.
• However, other types of arguments were artistic,
  meaning that the rhetorician had to use his wits
  and creativity to discover these means of
  persuading the audience.

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Aristotles Rhetoric
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Logos

• Logos are appeals to logic.
• In using logos, the rhetorician appeals to the
  audiences rational side.
• Logos involves building arguments through
  evidence, inferring logical conclusions from the
  evidence.

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Human Beings Not Driven Solely by Logic

• Aristotle was a firm believer in logic.
• However, he was enough of a realist to recognize
  that humans are emotional beings who make
  decisions based, in part, upon emotion.
• Thus, Aristotle acknowledged that a rhetorician
  would be neglecting some of the available means
  of persuasion if the rhetorician did not also
  appeal to the audiences emotion.

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Pathos

• Pathos are appeals to emotion
• With pathetic appeals, the rhetorician attempts
  to move the audience by tapping into their
  emotional side.
• Often, pathos involves appealing to the
  audiences sense of empathy, compassion,
  sympathy, pride or even anger or outrage.

9
Ethos

• Ethos are arguments or statements made by the
  rhetorician that are designed to build his or
  her credibility with the audience
• With ethical appeals, the rhetorician
  ingratiates himself with an audience--and
  thereby gains their trust and admiration--if he
  manages to create the impression that he is a
  person of intelligence, benevolence, and probity
  (Corbett and Connors, authors of Classical
  Rhetoric for the Modern Student).

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Awareness of Audience

• If rhetoric is defined as the art of discovering
  all the available means of persuasion, it would
  stand to reason that a rhetorician would need to
  have a keen sense of who his audience is and what
  makes them tick.
• A skilled rhetorician would recognize that he
  should tailor his appeals to fit his specific
  audience. (i.e. How do I need to build my
  credibility with this particular audience? Which
  emotions do I need to stir in this particular
  audience?)

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