Part V

Now, which of these is the most common or the most ubiquitous? This is a really hard topic because technically speaking, kairos is everywhere all the time, but it’s not quite one of the three major methods of persuasion, so I’ll ignore it. Out of the main three, pathos is by far the most omnipresent. Let me explain. In my opinion, both logos and ethos must fundamentally possess pathos in them to work. The basis of this is that all persuasion is directed towards people, and people are emotional creatures. For any argument to work, people have to feel good or sad, or mad. Even if I have a very convincing and persuasive logic-based argument, if I make you feel stupid or feel like crap, you’re not going to be persuaded, cause you hate me. Even if I’m credible, you’re not going to be inclined to believe me if you hate me. It’s the same principle.

To continue down this line of thought, then all 3 modes of persuasion play towards pathos. So for any to succeed, it has to be able to generate a sufficient emotional response, making pathos the most important. A good enough pathos argument naturally creates a sufficient emotional response. Both ethos and logos generate the same emotion, just through different methods. Ethos and logos arm people with the conception that they are smart or correct or righteous, something along those lines. When you think of something yourself or agree with something through logical means, even if the logic was faulty, you feel a sort of smarter than thou feeling. You additionally develop an emotional attachment to the conclusion, as it is your own, and defying it is like admitting you were wrong. Same with ethos, just that it doesn’t require nearly as much brain power. It’s the same principle as the little dog who is willing to bark and make a fuss when their owner is around, but not when alone. Ethos oftentimes makes humans like that, we may not be doing anything useful, we may not be thinking, but so long as an “expert” (whether real or perceived) is behind us, we will do anything.

_{Cover photo by Jaylan Shuea}