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

Aristotle and Modes of Persuasion - Essay ExampleThis essay takes an inauguration speech of USC professorship 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 close every facet of its operation, and analyses it using Aristotles 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 event of the person speaking. Aristotle says that if we believe that a speaker has good sense, good moral character, and goodwill, we ar inclined to believe what that speaker says to us. Since it is almost impossible for us to know heap to the same degree as they might have way back then, we tend to depend on the speakers authentication their professional associations, the work that theyve done, any awards theyve received. Pathos sounds a little bit like passion and refers to an appeal to the audiences emotions . What Aristotle recognized was that people are often moved more by their emotions than they are by their reason. Appeals to the emotions and passions are a very effective rhetorical technique, and very common in our society. galore(postnominal) 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 logical system and that is what is intended. Logical reasoning means making an argument based on rational thought. An example might be 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 plate that logical reasoning is undeniably true. 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 elses argument is an effective means for preparing the audience to accept your own contrary face (Edlund, 2003). While these three elements of a persuasive argument can be pulled out and discussed individually, in reality, they tend to function unitedly. 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