As a Catholic, sometimes we find ourselves having to explain a lot of things to people. More often than not, it tends to lead to an argument.
This article draws a pretty good distinction between a fight and an argument, and ways to appeal to someone's logos, ethos, and pathos. If we are very logical people, sometimes it is impossible to argue with someone who is completely emotional. It's not because they're stupid, but because we might not say something that resonates with them. The article uses kids as examples, but I don't see the big difference if they replaced children with adults.
Check it out! :)
http://www.figarospeech.com/teach-a-kid-to-argue/
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6 comments:
Interesting and good at encouraging our culture to be more able to speak our minds and dialogue, however, I don't like the fact that he left out that there's a distinct hierarchy (which he used himself, but didn't explicitly mention) that Aristotle would have reprimanded him on. And that is logos, arguing with logic is the highest form of argument since we are rational and reasonable beings. And if there was a disagreement, say one person uses pathos to argue one point and the other uses ethos to counter the point, whoever uses logos trumps all the the others is the winner of the argument.
I'm going to push the author's point further and give some quick examples off the top of my head, might be flawed...
pathos: there are innocent children suffering and dying of HIV contracted by their parents, we must pass out condoms to save them from this suffering which they don't deserve.
ethos (with some pathos): this public figure who is super charismatic says the majority of high school students are sexually active and won't stop their sexual activity and so we should teach them to use contraception so they won't spread sexually transmitted diseases.
logos: Of all the different HIV infected countries in Africa, only Uganda, which promoted fidelity and monogamy instead of condom use has seen a decrease in HIV infection and where the other countries that promoted condom use actually have seen increases in HIV infection rates, therefore, condom education and proliferation does not decrease HIV spread.
I have to add, if he's not careful, his kids will grow up to be great persuaders, hopefully not like the sophists that Socrates spoke up against in his day and was killed for because their rhetoric was no match for his logic :)
cant you use pathos ethos and logos to argue the same point though?
haha, yeah, absolutely!
I don't think the issue that Henry is getting at is that we should be able to use logic as the end-all trump card over the others; Cathy you are right in saying that all three aspects of argument can be used (after all, the truth must necessarily be true in all regards).
I think what Henry is getting at is that a correct hierarchy of the three arguments is very much still necessary, especially when we become adults in the field of debate. We are indeed much more likely to believe a person who is trustworthy (ethos) and most of the time our emotions don't let us down (pathos), but problems arise when other people, not coincidentally, appeal more readily to ethos and pathos than logos (after all, in my opinion, ethos and pathos are far easier to grasp). Ultimately, ethos and pathos are good tools in debate, but in and of themselves they are not good litmus tests of truth; the trustworthy person is not always right, and our emotions can also blind us from reason.
The fundamental problem I have run up against is not that I do not know how to argue, but rather that other people do not. When you appeal solely to ethos and pathos, after all, who can prove you wrong? There is no point to debate because a person is focused on all the wrong things- appearances and reputation, which can be deceiving, and feelings, which not only can be easily manipulated, but also can develop into what are essentially personal convictions that hold no real argumentative value.
It does not require proof to convince people anymore; you just need a flashy ad campaign and enough people to believe it that it gains "legitimacy". Look at how many people are excited about embryonic stem cells. Look at how many people hate the Bush administration for funding adult stem cell research rather than the "cures" procured from the destruction of embryos. Is that not some sort of sick joke? That the Culture of Death claims abortion and euthanasia as "compassionate" and gay marriage as "equality" is no coincidence. Ethos and pathos come almost naturally to us, but logos takes effort and time.
Logos is what sets us apart from the rest of creation. It sees beyond reputations, assumptions, appearance and "rhetoric", it sees beyond our initial reactions, our desires and our peeves, to find truth. It is no wonder that in a society that is beginning to believe we are no better than animals that the value of logos is trampled underfoot. Is this not the greatest triumph of the Evil One; to use us against ourselves? To use ethos and pathos which should uphold and fulfill and spur logos into action instead to oppose logos and supplant it as the new measure of truth? It is not a coincidence that the arguments against the Church do not address its reasons, for the reasoning behind its teachings is impeccable; the attacks against the Church, you will find, are instead that it is sexist, homophobic, and oppressive.
The Evil One is not stupid; on the scale of great persuaders, the one who is dubbed "the Deceiver" perhaps comes second only to God.
"God does not want you to eat from the tree because you will then yourselves become like gods."
"The Church does not want you to use contraception because it wants to own you. They oppose gay marriage because they are hateful and ignorant. They will not ordain women because they are sexist and stuck in the past. They are afraid, they are afraid, they are afraid."
The Devil knows that if we use our heads and hearts together, he will inevitably fail. He also knows that the easiest way to twist our heads is by deceiving our hearts.
But that is enough ranting; don't forget that God has given us all that we need to find Him. Believe in and pray for the people around you who may even hate you for your belief. Believe that the God that we know has not only given each one of us logos, ethos, and pathos, but is Himself the eternal Logos and waits patiently for us. The Truth is calling to the world (often through our own testimonies); let's pray that our world hears. God is more convincing still than the Devil. Lies are empty, but the Truth sets us free.
Peter, you're going to have to be my interpreter. I'm starting to lose my ability to communicate!!
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