Ethos Pathos Logos
Ethos Pathos Logos
Ethos Pathos Logos
The following essay "The Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos" was
written by Professor Jeanne Fahnestock of the University of Maryland,
College Park, and is a very insightful explanation of the three appeals.
I highly recommend reading it at the following web site . . .
http://otal.umd.edu/~mikej/supplements/ethoslogospathos.html
According to Aristotle, our perception of a speaker or writer's character
influences how believable or convincing we find what that person has
to say. This projected character is called the speaker or writer's ethos.
We are naturally more likely to be persuaded by a person who, we
think, has personal warmth, consideration of others, a good mind and
solid learning. Often we know something of the character of speakers
and writers ahead of time. They come with a reputation or extrinsic
ethos. People whose education, experience, and previous
performances qualify them to speak on a certain issue earn the special
extrinsic ethos of the authority. But whether or not we know anything
about the speaker or writer ahead of time, the actual text we hear or
read, the way it is written or spoken and what it says, always conveys
and impression of the author's character. This impression created by
the text itself is the intrinsic ethos.
Institutions, public roles and publications also project an ethos or
credibility. We assume, for example, that The New York Times is a more
credible source than the Weekly World News or the National Inquirer.
And we usually assume that a person selected for a position of
responsibility or honor is more credible than someone without official
sanction. These expectations about credibility and ethos are
occasionally disappointed.
Pathos
The persuasive appeal of pathos is an appeal to an audience's sense of
identity, their self-interest, their emotions. Many rhetoricians over the
centuries have considered pathos the strongest of the appeals, though
this view of persuasion is rarely mentioned without a lament about the
power of emotion to sway the mind.
Appeals to our sense of identity and self interest exploit common
biases; we naturally bend in the direction of what is advantageous to
us, what serves our interests or the interests of any group we believe
ourselves a part of. Even when advantage is not an issue, writers who
belong to groups we identify with, or create groups we can belong to,
often seem more compelling. We also naturally find more persuasive
the speaker or writer who flatters us (especially indirectly) instead of
insulting us. Thus skillful writers create a positive image in their words
of the audience they are addressing, an image their actual readers can
identify with. Who does not want to be the sensible, caring person the
those of bad fortune." Aristotle warns us, however: knowing (as a good
willed writer) how to get your readers to receive your ideas by making
readers "pleased and friendly" or "pained and hostile" is one thing;
playing on readers' emotions in ways that make them mindless of
concepts and consequences can corrupt the judgment of both
individuals and the community.
Logos
Finally, a writer appeals to readers through the appeal to the readers'
sense of logos. This is commonly called the logical appeal, and you can
use two different types of logic. You can use inductive logic by giving
your readers a bunch of similar examples and then drawing from them
a general proposition. This logic is pretty simple given this, that, and
the other thing-poof, there you go, a conclusion. Or, you can use the
deductive enthymeme by giving your readers a few general
propositions and then drawing from them a specific truth. Like,
"because such-'n-such is true and such-'n-such is true and such-'n-such
is true and everybody agrees on this other thing, then-poof, stands to
reason, a new truth.
Since the time that a bunch of guys called "The Royal Society" (Hume,
Locke, Bacon, etc.) rejected deduction, our culture has generally
favored induction because it's often called the "scientific method" and
we like science. Historically, people have also attributed feminine
metaphors to deductive logic and then easily dismissed it or dismissed
the general propositions as "not documented" or "old wives tales."
Source: Henning, Martha L. Friendly Persuasion: Classical Rhetoric-Now! Draft Manuscript. August, 1998.
http://www.millikin.edu/wcenter/workshop7b.html
The following web site presents student sample paragraphs that have
been revised and, as a result are much stronger. I strongly suggest
looking at these paragraphs in order to fully understand how Ethos,
Pathos, and Logos can be used to analyze your articles.
Paragraph Development (for Ethos, Logos, Pathos Essay)
http://www.merced.cc.ca.us/pirov/paraethos.htm