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Aristotle Rhetorical Analysis

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“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives- choice, not chance determines your destiny. -Aristotle (SayingBook)

Through out our lifetime, history has based the foundation of our people. History is a part of mankind, and an essential part of life. Rhetorical Theory has been a base in our communication for centuries, and has made the way humans communicate change drastically. One major contributor to the development of Rhetorical Theory was the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Growing up in northern Greece, Aristotle studied language, music, poetry, and geometry. Aristotle entered Plato’s Academy, …show more content…

He divided the means of persuasion in three parts, which were and are the most important parts of rhetoric; ethos which is the study of human character, pathos which is the study of psychology of emotion, and finally logos, which is the study of arguments. With ethos, he taught those to be credible with their audience, it is certain to appear knowledgeable to them, and allow them to trust your words. “Aristotle and Cicero thought that a speaker could only appeal to his ethos within the speech itself and that an orator should spend the first part of his speech establishing his credibility.” (McKay) Pathos, the appeal to emotion, seems to been seen by us through out the day on a daily basis through the media. Aristotle stated a clear-cut meaning with pathos, “putting the audience in the right frame of mind, to make a good decision.”-Aristotle. (Herrick 79) With logos, it simply means to show your audience your intelligence, or to act like it at least. “Aristotle believed logos to be the superior persuasive appeal and that all arguments should be won or lost on reason alone. However, he recognized that at times an audience would not be sophisticated enough to follow arguments based solely on scientific and logical principles and so the other appeals needed to be used as well.” …show more content…

The video clipped I chose to illustrate Aristotle may be very to the point, but it gives the viewer a reminder on who he was, and how important his works with rhetoric truly are. The clip clearly illustrates the meanings behind ethos, pathos, and logos, and puts these works in perspective by also giving the viewer and visual understanding of the artistic proofs. These three creations are the concrete stability of the art of persuasion, and from Aristotle himself, “rhetoric is the counterpart of dialect.” -Aristotle. (Herrick 70) Dialect plays an important part in rhetoric, and it tests out old and new ideas. Since Joshua was only applying his talents while using logos, the listeners were only viewing the intelligent side of his works in the subway. For people to connect, they need to feel the passion, and also the connection with one another. If Joshua were to play in front of the music hall for example, he would be connecting with his audience that has the same interests as him, and he would be able to show his ability else where rather just inside the building. Also, if the people on the street had the same musical interest as him, he would be more recognizable, thus giving him more of an opportunity to show his talents to people who share the same

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