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Aristotle defined rhetoric as the faculty of observing the available means of persuasion. Rhetoric was a formal branch of learning concerned with techniques to convince an audience. Persuasive speech consists of the speech itself, the subject, and the listener. The three means of persuasion are ethos, logos, and pathos. The success of persuasive efforts depends on the pathos of the listening audience. Aristotle suggests arousing emotions that favor the topic presented. A rhetorician can infer the circumstances in which the audience would most likely be angry from an opposing point of view.
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who lived from 384 to 322 BC, defines rhetoric as “the faculty of observing, at any rate, the available means of persuasion.” In the classical world, rhetoric was a formal branch of learning concerned with the techniques and devices used to convince or persuade an audience. Ancient philosophers Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian, in particular, developed theories regarding persuasive speech and writing. Aristotle’s Rhetoric is one of the most influential treatises on the subject, and Aristotle and rhetoric have been inexorably linked for more than 2,000 years.
A persuasive speech consists of three things: the speech itself, the subject of the speech, and the listener to whom the speech is addressed. For Aristotle, effective rhetoric takes equally into account the speaker, the speaker and the listener. The three means of persuasion available to the speaker, according to Aristotle and rhetoric, are ethos, or “character”; logos or “topic”; and pathos, or “suffering.” Ethos is an appeal based on the character of the speaker; logos is an appeal that is based on logic or reason; and pathos is an appeal that is based on the emotions of the listener.
For an orator to achieve the Aristotelian ethos, he must appear credible. If the speaker is credible, he will have a better chance of persuading the audience that his argument is valid. Aristotle suggests that credibility can be established by showing practical intelligence, virtuous character, and good will.
To persuade with logic, according to Aristotle and rhetoric, the argument must demonstrate, or at least appear to demonstrate, that something is true. For Aristotle, there are two types of logical arguments: inductions and deductions, commonly called inductive or deductive reasoning. An inductive argument proceeds from the particular to the universal. A deductive argument in which certain things have been supposed proceeds from a particular case to a similar particular case, provided both particulars are closely related and logically connected.
From the point of view of Aristotle and rhetoric, the success of persuasive efforts depends to a large extent on the pathos, or emotional disposition of the listening audience. Emotions have the ability to alter a listener’s judgments, regardless of the speaker’s character or the logic of his or her argument. In Rhetoric, Aristotle suggests that it is necessary to arouse in the listener an emotion that particularly favors the topic presented. To achieve this, Aristotle proposes that one must possess the knowledge and definition of every significant emotion and be aware of probable existing emotions already present in the listeners.
For example, by definition, an Aristotelian rhetorician would be able to infer the circumstances in which his audience would most likely be angry from an opposing point of view. By simply knowing who the listener is angry with and for what reason, the speaker can emphasize aspects of his or her argument that will arouse further anger and naturally sway the listener to the speaker’s side. While this may seem like manipulation to some people, the arousal of emotion is an accepted and necessary rhetorical device.
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