January 21, 2009

• Ah, The Daily Show. Gotta love that Jon Stewart. Seriously. So, right now is a repeat of last night’s episode. They replayed some of Obama’s speech & oddly/coincidentally/surprisingly enough, Bush has said some of those very things in various speeches he gave in the eight years he was prez.

  The difference?
  Pretty much some good ol’ Ethos, I’d say…
  
  “A General Summary of Aristotle’s Appeals: The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else’s. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories–Ethos, Pathos, Logos.

  Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

  Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader’s emotions. We can look at texts ranging from classic essays to contemporary advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Language choice affects the audience’s emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

  Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning. This will be the most important technique we will study, and Aristotle’s favorite. [...] Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation, and cannot be emphasized enough.”

  Then one of Jon’s correspondents said (I’m paraphrasing): “It’s like cheese, Jon. It’s fabulous on Italian food, but if you melt it on Chinese food it tastes like crap.” I love that analogy.

  In connection to all this=

  It occurred to me last night that… as a nation, no matter who is our president, no matter where we fall on the political spectrum, the question to ask ourselves always is: What am I doing to better my country? My state? My city? My neighborhood?

  For me, the answer is teaching. I didn’t really go into it for that reason, but basically I am trying to better the world by having students THINK about the world around them. Figure out what is wrong. Argue their thoughts logically on paper. Ask questions. Communicate problems & issues.

  • 8:29 pm
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