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Showing posts from February, 2020

Pathos

Pathos This week we talked and learned about forms of rhetoric. I find Pathos the most compelling. The idea of Pathos of course is to pull at the heart strings of the audience or create a feeling to support what the advertisement or propaganda is trying to sell. It truly is the most powerful form. Our brains create bias naturally and seeing something that negatively or positively affects your emotons will most defenitly create support or hate for said topic.     For example, a tire company posts a simple picture of a cute baby holding their product (a tire). With the heading "Michelin, because so much is riding on your tires." This a clear pathos, and a powerful one at that. Immediately all mothers and fathers who see the ad think of their families and think to trust Michelins tires, and even become a user of them.  It really is good business. Ethos and logos can also be powerful and of course they work as they are so commonly used. However, the power of emotion ma

The Contradiction of Virtue

Chapter Six of Thank You For Arguing by Jay Heinrichs delves into the three facets of a persuasive ethos: virtue, wisdom, and disinterest. Full of insight on how to use these elements to create a compelling public persona with the ability to persuade, Heinrichs excels in his ability to create contemporaneous examples of the Greek ethos, especially in regards to his argument of virtue. But hey there, bud, what do you mean by virtue? What is good and why? While we connote virtue with “good”, here, it does not mean the same thing. Can it mean “good”? The short answer is, it depends. Like most things in life, the content of what construes virtue is defined by its context. Take for example, the current president Donald J. Trump. While many on the left decry the leader as a racist, sexist, and anti-intellectual – and there are probably good arguments for these – his fans on the right see him as a tell-it-like-it-is champion of making the country “great” again. So, is he virtuou

Rhetoric

One of the things we have been covering for a good part of the semester is Rhetoric. We have been discussing what rhetoric is and how it is used. One thing we have also been looking at is the movie thank you for smoking which kind of deals with rhetoric. Another thing we covered in class is what rhetoric is and we discussed how it's the artificer of persuasion we also looked at some categories of rhetoric. We also discussed the two kinds of persuasion which are Knowledge vs Belief, we said Knowledge is true and belief without knowledge is true and false. In the movie thank you for smoking it deals with both knowledge and belief because the people have knowledge of cigarettes and nick gives them the belief the cigarettes are not dangerous and are good for you which then makes his a artificer of persuasion because he his persuading people to smoke by telling them cigarettes are nit bad for you.

Power of Rhetoric

Rhetoric is not a concept that can be condensed into a simple definition. It can be considered an art or a study. Some see rhetoric as a negative concept, while others see it as a positive tool. One thing that is universal about rhetoric is that it's used through the power of communication Throughtout this class we have disscussed the defintion of rhetoric and what it means to be a rhetorician. There are many different ways we  explain rhetoric and we spent time exploring this by reading Gorgias by Plato .  In Plato's writing he provides an insight into a conversation between Gorgias and Socrates. Gorgias tells Socrates that rhetoric is his art and Socrates has some quesitons. Gorgias tells Socrates that rhetoric relates to the greatest and best of human things. That being the individual power to rule over several states. Having the ability to persuade and change peoples way of thinking is a great power. It seems that someone who's aim is to take power over others can