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Greek philosophers believed that rhetoric consisted of three appeals: logos (logic), ethos (ethics), and pathos (emotion). Pathos can be fallacious, but is often used to persuade through emotions. Different subcategories of pathos include envy, fear, hatred, pity, and pride. Wishful thinking is another potentially fallacious appeal related to pathos.
The Greek philosophical pantheon, from Socrates to Plato to Aristotle, subscribed to the belief that rhetoric, or the art of persuasion, consisted largely of three kinds of appeals: logos to logic, ethos to ethics, and pathos to emotion. While this latest appeal to emotion may contain a logical argument within its shell, it can often be found to be fallacious. Pathos has been used tirelessly throughout history, from advertising to literature, to get the public to side with an argument, not necessarily because it’s right, but because it feels like the right thing to do.
There can be no holes in a solid wall of reason with a logical argument, or logos. It is when other components of rhetoric are employed that the subject begins to get cloudy. Using the ethos will call attention to the integrity of the speaker or writer, showing how an audience can trust that person’s judgment. Then pathos, the precursor to words like “pathetic,” “empathy,” and “pathological,” enters the subject matter to tug at the audience’s heartstrings. Feelings of love, hate, pride, happiness, and envy are key themes of pathos-based writing or speech.
Global citizens in 2011 are bombarded daily with pathos. Instead of calling attention to the logical reasoning behind an argument or the integrity of the person or institution supporting it, the emotional appeal will attempt to make the audience feel a certain way in an effort to win new converts. For example, instead of relating the logic of improving third world conditions to the integrity of the organization that seeks to improve such conditions, such types of institutions often ride their publicity on the emotions by portraying undernourished children in squalid conditions. An argument against racism could dwell on the logical and ethical reasons for resisting this historic threat, but also include pathos by including a story about a neighbor or friend who directly suffered from racism.
Within this field of potential errors are several subcategories of pathos. Each sub-category has its own name and emotional link. They include appeals to envy, fear, hatred, pity, and pride—argumentum ad dividem, metum, odium, mercyam, and superbiam, respectively.
Pathos is closely related to another potentially fallacious appeal called wishful thinking. Involving faith, creative visualization, or optimism, this argument assumes that the audience will want a certain belief or outcome to occur. Again, a logical argument could be wrapped up in all these fallacies and still be true. A fallacy could also be hidden in them.
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