RHETORIC
The communication is fundumental for politicians, we experience politics
especially through media.
The persuasion is the main instrument of politics in democracy, born in Ancient
Greece with the first democracy , the art of rhetoric was developed by Greeks.
The art of persuasion is defined as the art of finding ways to persuade our
audience, menarsele Aristotle defined rhetoric as the faculty of observing in
any given case the avaible means of persuasion.
Another important aspect of the rhetorical situation is the relationship among
the speaker, audience and subject, represented in a triangle , but what is it
their relationship? They are interconnected
Speaker —> who create a text in a group, it’s important to consider his
description, attitude ad behaviour and not the speaker as a name, difference
between delivering a message and the real life.
Audience —> the listener, there may be multiple audiences , and the speaker
must be analyse his audience ( neutral, expert)
Subject —> the topic
There are 3 rhetorical appeals tools to persuade :
- ETHOS : credibility
- LOGOS : reason
- PATHOS : emotion
ETHOS —> used to demonstrate that
who is talking is credible and
trustworthy, with the ethos is shown the
credibility of te speaker, emphasize
shared values between the speaker
And the audience
LOGOS —> speakers appeal to logos
or reason, by offering clear rational ideas,
demonstrate that our sentences are logical,
using specific details, examples or statistics
PATHOS —> is an appeal to emotions, values,
desires but also fears and prejudices.
It’s not effective, are used such tools as figurative language, vivid images,
personal anecdotes, but an argument that appeals exclusively to the emotions
is by definition weak.
It is necessary to balance three tools to persuade , they are inextricably linked
build ethos based on pathos or ethos can help build a foundation for an appeal
to logos.
There are 3 meanings of rhetoric :
Aristotle —> a natural and everyday human activity, people use language to
influence the behaviour of others
Plato —> rhetoric is manipulative
Is used a complex-sounding language to hide the truth or the speaker’s
ignorance
Nowadays —> it is equivalent to grandieloquence or the use of high-
sounding but empty language