The Art of Rhetoric Aristotle’s Appeals

Who is Aristotle? Aristotle (384-322 BCE) is the most notable product of the educational program devised by Plato. Aristotle wrote on an amazing range of subjects, from logic, philosophy, and ethics to physics, biology, psychology, politics, and rhetoric.

What is rhetoric? Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. The goal of persuasion is to change others’ point of view or to move others to take action.

What is logos, ethos, and pathos? Logos = Logic Ethos = Ethics, Image Pathos = Emotions (Passion)

Logos Logos: an appeal to logic or reason.

Logos An advertisement using logos will give you the evidence and statistics you need to fully understand what the product does. The logos of an advertisement will be the "straight facts" about the product: One glass of Florida orange juice contains 75% of your daily Vitamin C needs. Specific persuasive techniques that fall under logos include: facts and logic.

Example of Logos

Examples of Logos

Ethos Ethos: an appeal to credibility or character.

Ethos An advertisement using ethos will try to convince you that the company is more reliable, honest, and credible; therefore, you should buy its product. Ethos often involves statistics from reliable experts, such as nine out of ten dentists agree that Crest is the better than any other brand or Americas dieters choose Lean Cuisine. Often, a celebrity endorses a product to lend it more credibility: Catherine Zeta-Jones makes us want to switch to T-Mobile.

Examples of Ethos

Examples of Ethos

Ethos Specific persuasive techniques that fall under ethos include: testimonial, bandwagon, and ‘plain folks’ appeal

Testimonial An important person or famous figure endorses a product.

Ethos—Testimonial

Bandwagon This technique tries to persuade everyone to join in and do the same thing.

Ethos--Bandwagon

“Plain folks” appeal A “Plain Folks” argument is one in which the speaker presents him or herself as an “Average Joe”, a common person who can understand and empathize with a listener's concerns. The most important part of this appeal is the speaker's portrayal of themselves as someone who has had a similar experience, to the listener, and knows why they may be skeptical or cautious about accepting the speaker's point of view.

Ethos—”Plain Folks”

Pathos Pathos: An appeal to emotion.

Pathos An advertisement using pathos will attempt to evoke an emotional response in the consumer. Sometimes, it is a positive emotion such as happiness: an image of people enjoying themselves while drinking Pepsi. Other times, advertisers will use negative emotions such as pain: a person having back problems after buying the “wrong” mattress.

Pathos Pathos can also include emotions such as fear and guilt: images of a starving child persuade you to send money. Specific persuasive techniques that fall under pathos include: appeal to pity, appeal to vanity, appeal to fear, appeal to values/ethics, loaded language, and transfer

Pathos What emotion are they attempting to appeal to?

Pathos—Loaded Language Wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes.

Pathos—Loaded Language

Pathos—Transfer A technique of projecting positive or negative qualities (praise or blame) of a person, entity, object, or value (an individual, group, organization, nation, patriotism, etc.)

Pathos—Transfer