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How were a million mouths fed?
A world without refrigeration seems so distant and unimportant today, even though the refrigerator has been around for hardly more than a century. For thousands of years, our ancestors have battled the elements to ensure they could preserve food for more than a couple of days. What I want to investigate today is the ancient…
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Early Roman Banking
Early Romans, as with most early peoples, didn’t really utilize currency for trade. Commerce centered around bartering, which consisted of just trading desired items, rather than bothering with an intermediary of cash. However, as the Roman Empire and economy expanded, so did the need for a consistent medium for exchange. Thus, Roman currency was born. …
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Alexandrian Atlantis
The Portus Magnus in Alexandria, or Grand Port, was home to one of the famous Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria. Built around 280 B.C. by the Ptolemies, it was the longest-standing of the Seven Wonders, lasting into the 1300s A.D. The Lighthouse guided ships…
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Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: the Strongest
Part VI So, pathos is everywhere, but is it the strongest? I do not think so. The strongest is ethos. Ethos, especially in the way it is often used today, is the ultimate pathos and the antithesis of logos. A most dangerous concoction of righteousness with a total lack of any thought. We have been…
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Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: the Omnipresent
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…
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Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: Mystery Fourth Member
Part IV Aristotle believed that ethos, pathos, and logos represented the three core methods of persuasion, but nevertheless recognized a fourth factor as very important too. This mysterious fourth factor is kairos. This is by far the hardest to translate, but it’s sort of like timing. Well, timing isn’t exactly the best word, because kairos…
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Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: What is Logos?
Part III Last of the main three, logos. Logos is logic and relies on the quality of arguments. My favorite example is the scene of Socrates and Diotima in Plato’s Symposium. It’s an engagement between the two where Diotima is making an argument to Socrates on the nature of Eros (the personification of love). There…
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Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: What is Pathos?
Part II Pathos can best be described as emotional. Pathos relies on what is essentially emotional manipulation. This can happen in a variety of ways, as humans are multifaceted and empathetic creatures. This can be done through, for example, the display of tragic photos, like the How the Other Half Lives series. The photos show…
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Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: What is Ethos?
Part I Over the next few posts, I want to investigate the idea of ethos, pathos, and logos. What are they? What is the secret 4th one? Who came up with them? How can each be used? Which is most fundamental? And finally, which one is strongest or most important? The idea of ethos, pathos,…