Use of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Rhetoric

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In the time of ancient Greece, there were a category of teachers called the sophists who believed that wisdom and Rhetoric could and should be used for profit and personal gain. Aristotle, a well-known teacher, disagreed with this completely and believed that while Rhetoric is persuasive, it should be used morally and with good intentions. He stressed the idea of using moral standards along with emotion, logic and truth to persuade any audience. Almost 1000 years later, Augustine took this step even further with the use of rhetoric within religion practice. He emphasized the idea that rhetoric is a means by which to promote good will and spread truth. Today, modern rhetorician Dubinsky would take this step even further, by stating that Rhetoric isn’t just a means to an end. Rhetoric improves our very lives and unites people under a common good with the proper ethics. While it is unfortunate that they are from different time periods, Aristotle, St Augustine, and Dubinsky would surely all agree that Rhetoric is a means by which regular people can be persuasive with their ideals. All while using the right morals, good intentions, and correct ethics to do so, so that any regular person can influence and change their world, from the simplest of arguments to the greatest of debates. That is why I believe we should study these famous rhetoricians, because their teachings teach us how to become better people and better writers. Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Dubinsky believed in Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, which means studying and working with your audience to persuade them in such way that you’re collaborating for the benefit of both the writer and the reader.

Aristotle lived in ancient Greece from 284 BC to 322 BC, but his teachings hav...

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...was the first to put to the audience before the orator, saying that to persuade, one must appeal to emotion, logic, or truth. Augustine, put the audience even above the speech itself, saying that audience is everything and that they will only be persuaded by passion and clarity. Dubinsky advocated the ideal of not just using rhetoric for personal gain and instead using it too better one self and the community. While Augustine used Rhetoric to educate his era, Augustine for the betterment of Christianity, and Dubinsky for college students, their ideals were similar and it is from that similarity that we as readers should expand on their teachings and use Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in our writing. So that we may persuade using the right morals, good intentions, and correct ethics to that we may persuade and inspire the people of today and teach the people of tomorrow.

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