A few years ago I was in Charlotte attending a seminar necessary to keep my professional education credits current. It was entitled Persuasive Negotiating or something similar. The man presenting the seminar relied upon Aristotle’s three categories of persuasion: Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Loosely translated, these mean “credibility,” “passion,” and “logic.” Of all these, ethos is regarded as the most important – one cannot be persuasive unless one is credible.
Now, this may seem to make sense but – if you think about – it really, really doesn’t. Technically, if someone who obviously doesn’t believe what he is saying nevertheless lays out an utterly logical, convincing argument, then I can still agree with the argument even as I completely disregard the speaker’s credibility. (Until they finally got the joke, I think this is why Conservatives used to tune in and watch Steven Colbert.) The speech will persuade me even if I personally think the speaker is a tool.
In fact, the idea that anyone should be persuaded on the basis of anything other than Logos has always kind of offended me. But apparently I am in the minority on this one. Logos is considered the weakest of the three persuasive types.
In any event, when the man running the seminar asked us if we could think of an example of Ethos being used to persuasive effect I raised my hand:
“Well, isn’t that used in basically every political campaign these days?” I asked. “How many times have we heard a politician running for office say something like: ‘You may not agree with me, but at least you know where I stand’?”
“Yes,” he said, “that’s a perfect example.”
“Yeah, but it’s really, really dumb,” I complained.
“It’s not dumb,” he protested, “it’s –”
“No, it’s dumb,” I insisted. “Think about it. When someone makes that argument what they are really saying is ‘That other guy, my opponent, he might kind of agree with you. But I really, really don’t agree with you. I absolutely hate what you stand for. Vote for me.’ And yet . . . people do. This is considered a winning campaign approach. That’s dumb.”
The man decided he didn’t like me.
