By Dino Sossi
https://dinosossi.wordpress.com/2021/01/14/get-what-you-wantaristotles-rhetoric/
Figure #1 – Could I sell you a soda? (Nordquist, 2017)
How do we get what we want?
During the current political moment, it feels like might makes right. Those who are the strongest and have the most power seem to get whatever they want.
But is there a way for regular Janes and Joes like you and me to make our way through the world and get that shiny apple we covet without needlessly pushing over the cart?
To help us master the art of persuasion, we are going to take a trip back to ancient Athens.
Kicking it Really Old School: Reexamining Aristotle
Figure #2 – I guess some things are cast in stone… (Amadio, n.d.)
Aristotle firmly believed in the ideal of community. He felt that rhetoric, the art of persuasion, was a means to foster a sense of community (Lumen, n.d.). Recent scholars see persuasion as a form of argumentation (Billig, 1993; Burnyeat, 1994; Tindale, 1997). In short, you argue to persuade an audience to achieve a desired effect.
This is fine in theory. But how do you practically make someone buy what you are selling? In short, how do you weave persuasion into your daily life?
Aristotle summarizes the essence of persuasion in this tidy paragraph:
Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself. (Aristotle, 360 BCE)
If you break this quote down to its constituent elements, a speech includes three major components: the speaker, her audience, and the subject matter of her speech. From this, Aristotle’s legendary work The Rhetoric divides rhetoric and persuasion into three major parts – ethos, pathos, and logos:
1. Personal Character–Ethos:
Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.
This kind of persuasion should be achieved by what the speaker says and by what people think of his character before he begins to speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of persuasion; on the contrary, his character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion he possesses. [Ethos] (Aristotle, 360 BCE)
In short, if your audience thinks you are a good person with a high quality personal character, you will be perceived as being more persuasive. In fact, Aristotle believes it might even be the most determinative part of persuasion. If you do not believe in the character of the speaker, why would you believe in what she is saying?
2. Stirring Emotions–Pathos:
Secondly, persuasion may come through the hearers, when the speech stirs their emotions. Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile. It is towards producing these effects, as we maintain, that-present day writers on rhetoric direct the whole of their efforts. This subject shall be treated in detail when we come to speak of the emotions. [Pathos] (Aristotle, 360 BCE)
If you can appeal to the emotions of your audience to make them feel pleased and friendly, you are more persuasive. When the audience is in a pleasant mood, they will be more receptive to your message. If they are angry, hostile, or pained? Good luck.
3. Truth and Facts–Logos:
Thirdly, persuasion is effected through the speech itself when we have proved a truth or an apparent truth by means of the persuasive arguments suitable to the case in question. [Logos] (Aristotle, 360 BCE)
Finally, if you marshal facts and truths, you are more persuasive. The audience may believe in you as well as be in the right frame of mind to believe what you are saying, but without credible facts and evidence, they will not be fully persuaded.
Perpetual Persuasion–The Legacy of Aristotle’s Rhetoric:
Over two thousand years later, The Rhetoric still points the way toward persuasion. Remember that if your audience perceives you as having a high quality personal character (ethos), you appeal to their emotions (pathos), and you provide them with facts and truth (logos), you will be more persuasive.
Ethos, pathos, and logos – simple as that. At least you persuaded me Aristotle!
References:
Amadio, A. H. (n.d.). Aristotle, Greek philosopher. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle/Physics-and-metaphysics
Aristotle. (360 BCE). The Rhetoric, Book I.
Billig, M. (1993). Psychology, rhetoric and cognition. In R. H. Roberts & J. M. M. Good (Eds.), The recovery of rhetoric: Persuasive discourse and disciplinarity in the human sciences (pp. 119–136). University Press of Virginia.
Burnyeat, M.F. (1994). Enthymeme: Aristotle on the logic of persuasion. In D. J. Furley & A. Nehamas (Eds.), Aristotle’s rhetoric: Philosophical essays (pp. 3–55). Princeton University Press.
Lumen. (n.d.). Rhetoric in ancient times. Introduction to Communication. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introductiontocommunication/chapter/174/
Nordquist, R. (2017, April 7). Persuasion and rhetorical definition. Thought Co. https://www.thoughtco.com/persuasion-rhetoric-and-composition-1691617
Tindale, C. W. (1997). Introduction: The importance of rhetoric for argumentation. OSSA
Conference Archive, 1. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/ossaarchive/OSSA2/papersandcommentaries/1
dino sossi 