Pathos involves emotion. People use pathos to try and persuade someone to get what they want. It is used a lot in todays commercials or in everyday life when talking to people. You know when people try and make you feel bad for not going somewhere or doing something with you? Thats Pathos. They use guilt and try and persuade you to change your opinion. Pathos is one of Aristotle's three argument tools. In Chapter 4 of Thank You For Arguing, he stated "When a little girl acts sad, sympathy means looking sad, too; it does not mean chirping, "Cheer up!" I think by showing you have sympathy towards someone, they are using pathos to get you to that point. That was Aristotles point of using that example.
A great example of pathos is when you see those commercials, especially during the Super Bowl, and its a little girl sad, or a puppy leaving home, and then they show you the brand of the product and it makes you want to buy it. Yes, they used pathos. They used things people can't resist, young children and puppies. They made your emotions feel sympathy towards them and want you to buy those products. I know when you're watching the Super Bowl or any sports, you don't think "oh they are using pathos, logos, or ethos" but they do to make people buy their product. It is used everyday and most people don't even realize it.
I like how you mentioned the super bowl commercials. That is a great example of ways that people use pathos.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't enjoy when persuaders use pathos. It makes me feel belittled because I can sense their technique of trying to use my emotions to believe what they are saying. In addition, I think there are better approaches to persuasion than pathos; logos uses the cold hard facts, which is something you can't go wrong with, I think. Also, ethos uses ethics to present an argument in a better way than pathos. If I am going to be persuaded into changing my thoughts on an issue or topic, I don't want the persuader to use my personal emotions as a tool; I want them to find more information I might not have known already and connect that to my life in order to change my mindset.
ReplyDeleteYou did a very good job at explaining what pathos is and used great examples! This blog for sure helped me understand pathos more and what to look for when trying to identify pathos in an argument.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this blog I think it can help anyone have a better understanding of pathos. I liked how you used real life examples because I think it will help people even more to understand what you're saying.
ReplyDeleteThose examples helped me learn more about pathos and the effectiveness of it. We barely realize it, but when they use puppies or little babies in their commercial, they are using pathos.
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