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Abstract
In his Rhetoric, Aristotle defends rhetoric against the charges that it permits injustice and distorts truth--charges made by Aristophanes and Plato. He presents rhetoric as a bridge between private and public, passion and reason, individual interest and common good, and equity and law. Rhetoric thus appears as a means for statesmanship rather than a tool of despotism.
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Current issues are now on the Chicago Journals website. Read the latest issue. Established in 1939 and published for the Southern Political Science Association, The Journal of Politics is a leading general-interest journal of political science and the oldest regional political science journal in the United States. The scholarship published in The Journal of Politics is theoretically innovative and methodologically diverse, and comprises a blend of the various intellectual approaches that make up the discipline. The Journal of Politics features balanced treatments of research from scholars around the world, in all subfields of political science including American politics, comparative politics, international relations, political theory, and political methodology.
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Since its origins in 1890 as one of the three main divisions of the University of Chicago, The University of Chicago Press has embraced as its mission the obligation to disseminate scholarship of the highest standard and to publish serious works that promote education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. Today, the Journals Division publishes more than 70 journals and hardcover serials, in a wide range of academic disciplines, including the social sciences, the humanities, education, the biological and medical sciences, and the physical sciences.
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2300 years ago, Aristotle wrote down the secret to being a persuasive speaker, the secret which forms the basis for nearly every public speaking book written since then.
Do you know the secret?
If you don’t, you might be wondering what a 2300-year-old theory has to do with public speaking in the year 2010.
In a word — everything!
In this article, you’ll learn what ethos, pathos, and logos are (the secret!), and what every speaker needs to understand about these three pillars of public speaking.
What are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos?
So, what are ethos, pathos, and logos?
In simplest terms, they correspond to:
- Ethos: credibility (or character) of the speaker
- Pathos: emotional connection to the audience
- Logos: logical argument
Together, they are the three persuasive appeals. In other words, these are the three essential qualities that your speech or presentation must have before your audience will accept your message.
Origins of Ethos, Pathos, Logos — On Rhetoric by Aristotle
Three Pillars of Public Speaking
- Ethos, Pathos, Logos - Introduction
- Ethos -
Speaker Credibility
- What is Ethos?
- How to Establish Ethos
- Pathos - Emotional Connection
- What is Pathos?
- How to Develop Pathos
- Logos - Logical Argument
- What is Logos?
- How to Convey Logos
Written in the 4th century B.C.E., the Greek philosopher Aristotle compiled his thoughts on the art of rhetoric into On Rhetoric, including his theory on the three persuasive appeals.
Many teachers of communication, speech, and rhetoric consider Aristotle’s On Rhetoric to be a seminal work in the field. Indeed, the editors of The Rhetoric of Western Thought: From the Mediterranean World to the Global Setting call it “the most important single work on persuasion ever written.” It is hard to argue this claim; most advice from modern books can be traced back to Aristotle’s foundations.
Ethos
Before you can convince an audience to accept anything you say, they have to accept you as credible.
There are many aspects to building your credibility:
- Does the audience respect you?
- Does the audience believe you are of good character?
- Does the audience believe you are generally trustworthy?
- Does the audience believe you are an authority on this speech topic?
Keep in mind that it isn’t enough for you to know that you are a credible source. (This isn’t about your confidence, experience, or expertise.) Your audience must know this. Ethos is your level of credibility as perceived by your audience.
We will define ethos in greater detail, and we will study examples of how to establish and build ethos.
Pathos
Pathos is the quality of a persuasive presentation which appeals to the emotions of the audience.
- Do your words evoke feelings of … love? … sympathy? … fear?
- Do your visuals evoke feelings of compassion? … envy?
- Does your characterization of the competition evoke feelings of hate? contempt?
Emotional connection can be created in many ways by a speaker, perhaps most notably by stories. The goal of a story, anecdote, analogy, simile, and metaphor is often to link an aspect of our primary message with a triggered emotional response from the audience.
We will study pathos in greater detail, and look at how to build pathos by tapping into different audience emotions.
Logos
Logos is synonymous with a logical argument.
- Does your message make sense?
- Is your message based on facts, statistics, and evidence?
- Will your call-to-action lead to the desired outcome that you promise?
We will see why logos is critical to your success, and examine ways to construct a logical, reasoned argument.
Which is most important? Ethos? Pathos? or Logos?
Suppose two speakers give speeches about a new corporate restructuring strategy.
- The first speaker — a grade nine student — gives a flawless speech pitching strategy A which is both logically sound and stirs emotions.
- The second speaker — a Fortune 500 CEO — gives a boring speech pitching strategy B.
Which speech is more persuasive? Is the CEO’s speech more persuasive, simply because she has much more credibility (ethos)?
Some suggest that pathos is the most critical of the three. In You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard, Bert Decker says that people buy on emotion (pathos) and justify with fact (logos). True? You decide.
Aristotle believed that logos should be the most important of the three persuasive appeals. As a philosopher and a master of logical reasoning, he believed that logos should be the only required persuasive appeal. That is, if you demonstrated logos, you should not need either ethos or pathos.
However, Aristotle stated that logos alone is not sufficient. Not only is it not sufficient on its own, but it is no more important than either of the two other pillars. He argued that all three persuasive appeals are necessary.
Is he right? What do you think?
Next in this Series…
In the next article of this series, we examine ethos in greater detail.
is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.