Introduction to Rhetoric

Author: Marc Howard Rich, Ph.D.

Associate Professor SRM University AP.

Note on the text: Definitions of keywords will be presented in bold. Advanced English words
you should look up in a dictionary will be italicized.

Introduction.
Rhetoric is defined as the art of persuasion. When people use communication to try and
persuade other people they are using rhetoric. Rhetoric is essential in understanding how to
effectively present your ideas to other people. Rhetoric is most effective when the rhetor, the
person who is trying to persuade, understands the audience. A rhetorical appeal is defined as
an attempt to use rhetoric to persuade your audience.
In text question:
Can you think of a time when you wanted to persuade
an audience to do something?

We encounter rhetoric whenever a politician gives a speech because they are trying to persuade
their audience to support some policy or vote for them in the next election. We see rhetoric
whenever we see an advertisement because the company is trying to convince you to buy a
product. We see rhetoric whenever someone goes to a job interview because they are trying to
persuade a company to hire them. We see rhetoric whenever a group of friends are trying to
decide where to go to dinner.
In this reading we will discuss how Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, taught his students
rhetoric. Today people consider Aristotle to be one of the founders of western philosophy.

History.
Aristotle lived in Greece between 384-322 BCE. He spent his adult life in a city called Athens. In
Athens Greece at that time it was important that people learned rhetoric because Athens was a
democracy. In an Athenian democracy all the citizens would come together and debate laws and
how to best rule Athens. Learning rhetoric was also important because the legal system didn’t
have any lawyers. So, if you were accused of a crime it was your responsibility to convince the
jury you were innocent of that crime. If an Athenian citizen didn’t know rhetoric they would not
be able to effectively participate in discussions over Athenian governance, and if they were
accused of a crime they would not be able to defend themselves in court. Because of this
Athenians were very concerned with learning effective communication.
In text question:
India is the world’s largest democracy. It is different from Athens in many ways but
What are some reasons that is it important for Indians to understand rhetoric?

Aristotle believed rhetoric was an art, defined as a skill you can learn and get better at with
practice. He set up a school in Athens that taught math, science, and especially rhetoric to the
people of Athens. Aristotle taught his students that there were three ways you could persuade
your audience. If a rhetor understands and applies these methods, or as Aristotle called them
artistic proofs, they will be able to effectively persuade their audience.

Aristotle also thought it was important to understand rhetoric so that people would not be fooled
by bad people trying to use rhetoric to convince people to do things they normally wouldn’t want
to do. If you understand rhetoric, then you are less likely to be fooled by unethical people.
In text question
Can you think of someone who is good at persuading people?
Can you think of an unethical person who persuaded
people to do bad things (someone other than Hitler)?

Summary thus far: Aristotle taught people how to become more effective at persuading
audiences by using the three artistic proofs to their rhetorical appeals.

Artistic proofs.
Since rhetoric is an art it is something you can learn and get better at with practice. People who
study and practice rhetoric are more effective at persuading audiences and effectively conveying
their ideas. People who ignore rhetoric are bad at persuading audiences and find it difficult to
have others understand their ideas.

The three artistic proofs are ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ethos is defined as the audience’s perception of the rhetor’s character. An audience’s
perception of a rhetor’s character can determine if they like or dislike what the rhetor is trying to
do.
Pathos is defined as appeals to emotion. Rhetors can use rhetoric to make an audience happy,
sad, angry, patriotic, seething, or triumphant. The audience may then be more inclined to follow
the rhetors ideas.
Logos is defined as appeals to logic. These are arguments which use reason or proof to support
an argument.

Ethos.
Ethos is the audience’s perception of a rhetor’s character. Aristotle taught that ethos was
essential for persuading an audience. If a rhetor’s audience doesn’t like their character then the
audience would not be persuaded.
There are three parts to ethos.
1. Good will toward the audience. Does the audience trust that the rhetor has the same goals
as the audience, or does the audience believe that the rhetor is working against the
audience’s best interests?
For example: Priyank wants everyone to eat at his favourite pizza restaurant, but his
friends are thinking about going somewhere else. Instead of simply arguing that it is his
favourite restaurant and he really wants to go, Priyank decides to demonstrate that he is
thinking about the groups needs by pointing out that they could save money by buying a
pizza to share, and then everyone would have enough money to see the movie that
evening and have a good time.
 2. Virtue. Does the rhetor have the same morality as the audience? Important here is that the
audience must believe that the rhetor shares their values.
For example: A student missed class and wants to persuade their professor to excuse their
absence. The professor has been in education for decades and obviously believes that
education is important. The student will be more successful if they find a way to convince
the professor that the student takes their education seriously. One way to do this is by
asking questions about the class they missed and demonstrating that they did their
homework and were prepared for class. This will show the professor that the student also
takes education seriously.

3. Phronesis defined as practical wisdom. Does the rhetor have the life experience to do
what they are trying to do?
For example: Muhammad is shy and doesn’t know too many people, but he loves desserts
and his friends know he has eaten at all the great dessert restaurants in town. His friends
decide to throw a party and when he volunteers to bring desserts his friends quickly agree
without any debate because they know he has the experience to choose the best in town.

Missuses of ethos.
Ethos can be misused when the speaker’s character is so powerful that the audience doesn’t
investigate what the speaker is trying to do. Audiences need to pay attention to both the rhetor’s
character as well as the quality of their argument. This misuse can cause two types of bad
arguments

Appeals to authority: An appeal to authority is a bad argument where an argument is only

supported by the rhetor’s character or authority. This is the “I’m the mommy, that’s why”
argument.

Ad hominem: When instead of addressing the argument, the rhetor attacks the character of their
opponent. This is the “oh YAH! Well you smell funny” argument.

Pathos.
Pathos is defined as appeals to emotion. Aristotle argued that pathos is the most effective form of
persuasion. Saint Augustine is credited with saying that a good rhetor would leave the audience
in tears (he never said this, but the fake story continues to be told). The audience may be more
receptive to the rhetor’s appeal if he causes them to be sad, angry, happy, patriotic, or enraged.
People frequently make decisions based on how a rhetor makes them feel about a situation. Great
acts of good were accomplished by causing an audience to feel sympathy for a disadvantaged
group. However great acts of evil have also been accomplished because a rhetor was able to
cause an audience to act with violence against another group either through extreme nationalism
or simply by making them angry enough to hurt others.

Example: In a famous Animal Shelter add the singer Sarah McLaughlin cuddles a puppy while
talking to the audience about adopting animals while a sad song plays in the background. The
video then starts showing pictures of scared dogs and cats sitting in cages while Sarah starts
pleading with the audience to “please consider adopting a shelter animal.” By the end of the
video the audience feels sad for the animals and you want to help the poor puppies.
Misuses of pathos.
Rhetors can misuse pathos when they misrepresent or fail to provide evidence for their argument.
Recently Donald Trump used pathos to invoke fear in his audience over violence from
undocumented immigrants. He told scary stories about undocumented immigrants who murdered
some people in order to try and convince his audience that all undocumented immigrants were
dangerous and needed to be stopped. The truth was that undocumented immigrants are in fact
less likely to be dangerous than American citizens, but Trump convinced his audience they
didn’t need to investigate his claims because his use of pathos made his audience afraid for their
lives.

Logos.
Logos is defined as appeals to logic. Aristotle argued that logos is the least persuasive of all the
artistic proofs, but it is the one we should pay the most attention to as an audience. A logical
argument presents arguments or facts so that the audience is able to see why a claim is correct.
Things like scientific claims, statistical evidence, arguments that follow a logical form are all
examples of logos.
The most famous example is “All humans are mortal, Socrates is a human, therefore Socrates is
mortal.” In this case facts are presented in such a way that everyone can see exactly why
Socrates is mortal.

Example: Nikkita is hanging out with her friends and for some reason they all want to go to
Muhammad’s pizza restaurant…again. She wants to try out the new fresh sandwich and salad
place that just opened in the mall. She decides to point out how unhealthy the pizza is, using
facts like calorie and salt levels, and argues that since the new restaurant is obviously healthier
than pizza they should go there instead.

Misuses of logos.
There are many ways people misuse logos to hide a bad argument. Usually this is when someone
uses bad evidence to make a claim. Here are a few of the common ones.
Red herring: When someone changes the argument to something else instead of actually staying
on topic.
False dilemma: arguing that there are only two choices that the audience can make, and your
position is the obviously correct one.
Anecdotal evidence/inductive fallacy: when you use a single example and claim that this
example is representative of a larger trend (this is what Trump did with the immigrants, he gave
one example and didn’t mention that it was not a good example for the whole).