Mitchell Berger 1/29
This week we read a lot of material
both in and out of class. It included readings from praxis as well as Stanley
Fish’s New York Times article, “Democracy in Education. We also tackled Martin
Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” and Rebecca Jones’ article, “Find the
Argument. In all of these readings we were being educated about or practicing
Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals.
Aristotle’s three rhetorical
appeals are ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos establishes the speaker’s
credibility. It builds trust between the author and the audience. Logos is the
appeal that uses logic to argue a point. For example, in group work this week
my group had to find three logos appeals in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a
Dream” speech. One of the logos appeals we found was “We can never be satisfied
as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police
brutality”. This was a logos appeal because he used the example of police
brutality to plead his case that no man would logically want to be the victim
of police brutality. And the third and final appeal is pathos, which connects
to the audience’s emotional side. An example would be leading off a wedding
toast with a story about the groom and yourself.
In Rebecca Jones’s article, “Find
the Argument”, there is an interesting metaphor that I would like to bring to attention.
The metaphor is argument in western culture is war, “It is important to see
that we don’t just talk about arguments in terms of war. We actually win or
lose arguments. We see the person we are arguing with as an opponent. We attack
his positions and we defend our own. We gain and lose ground. We plan and use strategies.
If we find a position indefensible, we can abandon it and take a new line of
attack. Many of the things we do in arguing are partially structured by the
concept of war. (4)” I really like this metaphor because I think people really
do see argument as war. How many times do you go on Facebook and see two people
arguing like their life depended on it? Most of those arguments often end in a
draw due to people staying true to their opinions even if they were proven
wrong. This metaphor made me realize that when I do get into an argument with
someone, I need to start viewing it as a battle. I think my ideas and opinions
would be comprehended much better if I did so.
We looked at many readings this week. I agree with Mitchell that all of Aristotle’s appeals are more than apparent in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Throughout the entire speech he uses the appeals to make the audience hear his points and relate to all that he has to say. The pathos makes people feel emotion and connection to the speech. The ethos makes him credible as a speaker. And the logos, or facts, help to build the argument and make the it logical. Because of these appeals, his speech was heard and is still analyzed today, many years later.
ReplyDeleteIn the article finding the argument I agree with what Mitchell said. He believes that by looking at an argument in the way that Jones says to, as a war or battles, it could help you make a better argument. Through looking at an argument as a battle, you would be more likely to defend your position and beliefs. Everyone wants to win the battle, so no one is going to voluntarily back down from their beliefs when they are thinking of the argument as a war.