Aristotle and Modes of Persuasion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Aristotle and Modes of Persuasion - Essay Example This essay takes an inauguration speech of USC President C.L. Max Nikias, in which he was attempting to convince his audience that it is time for some sweeping change in direction at the university in just about every facet of its operation, and analyses it using Aristotle's modes of persuasion. It was Aristotle who first identified ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos sounds like ethics and can be thought of as the ethics or character of the person speaking. â€Å"Aristotle says that if we believe that a speaker has ‘good sense, good moral character, and goodwill,’ we are inclined to believe what that speaker says to us†. Since it is almost impossible for us to know people to the same degree as they might have way back then, we tend to depend on the speaker’s credentials – their professional associations, the work that they’ve done, any awards they’ve received. Pathos sounds a little bit like passion and refers to an appeal to the audienceâ €™s emotions. What Aristotle recognized was that people are often moved more by their emotions than they are by their reason. â€Å"Appeals to the emotions and passions are a very effective rhetorical technique, and very common in our society. Many advertisements for consumer goods aim at making us insecure about our attractiveness or social acceptability, and then offer a remedy for this feeling in the form of a product†. Some of the most common emotions that are appealed to are anger, fear and pity because these emotions move people most. Logos sounds like logic and that is what is intended. Logical reasoning means making an argument based on rational thought. An example might be â€Å"if A + B = C and D + B = C then A and D are the same.† Although it might be possible to prove this statement is true mathematically, it is not always the case that logical reasoning is undeniably true. â€Å"Rhetorical arguments are often based on probabilities rather than certain truth †¦ Persuasion, to a large extent, involves convincing people to accept our assumptions as probably true. Similarly, exposing questionable assumptions in someone else’s argument is an effective means for preparing the audience to accept your own contrary position† (Edlund, 2003). While these three elements of a persuasive argument can be pulled out and discussed individually, in reality, they tend to function together. Within his speech to the students, Dr. Nikias combines all of these elements together in his attempt to convince his audience that he is about to lead this