Importance Of Logos

When many think of the term logos, they think of logic. However, in terms of defining the word, this description is just a small piece of the meaning. Logos isn’t just logic, nor is it like the strict logic in math, biology, or even something advanced like physics. Logos deals with several aspects, which are concerned with the content, structure, and argumentation of a speech. It is the consistency and clarity of an argument as well as the logic of evidence and reason. Logos can be developed by using progressive, hypothetical or abstract language, citing facts and data, using historical and literal analogies, and by building logical arguments. Traditionally the meaning for logos is “word, thought, or principle”, however, there are many different

As said by Aristotle, logos is “the speech itself, in so far as it proves or seems to prove.” He supposed that an argument should prove something, or at least it should appear to prove something. He uses the word logos as meaning “argument for reason”, and includes it as one of the three modes of persuasion. The other two modes were known as ethos and pathos. Ethos is an appeal to ethics, and it is a means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader. Pathos is an appeal to emotion, and is a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response. These three appeals are all means of persuading others to take a particular point of view. The ability to achieve logos is to express arguments in the appropriate form for the given communication method and audience. While the three modes of persuasion can all be used in different and appropriate times, logos is known to have a distinct advantage over the other two. In arguments, specifically those based on reason or logic, using data makes it harder to argue against something that is proven facts. This usually works in the speaker’s advantage, as it can make him/her look prepared, which promotes ethos as well. This is proof, to Aristotle, that the three modes of persuasion can interact with each other, and work at the same time. He believed in his rhetoric, and believed the meaning of logos is something more sophisticated than the capacity to make one’s private feelings known to the public. Instead, he alleged that it enables human beings to perform as no other animal on Earth can; it makes it possible for us to distinguish and make clear to others, through logical dissertation, the difference between what is beneficial and what is harmful, between what is just and what is unjust, and between what is good and what is