Ethos, Pathos And Logos In The Argument's Best Friend

Rhetoric has been used as one of the top argumentation strategies for hundreds of years. There are three rhetorical appeals that can be easily identified in most argumentation, these appeals are referred to as Ethos, Pathos, and Logos (“The Argument’s Best Friend”). Ethos is the use of one’s own credibility as a reference, one may do this by first gaining the trust of the audience, “I will make America great again” is an excellent example of this specific appeal (Dictionary.com). The second rhetorical appeal is Pathos. Pathos is the use of one’s emotions to win an argument, such as “People are starving and you are wasting your food!” (Dictionary.com) Logos is defined as the use of logic or reason to persuade someone or to win an argument.

In the “180 Movie”, Ray Comfort interviews random people all over the streets asking questions such as “Who was Hitler?” “How do you feel about abortion?”, and “If you had a rifle pointed at Hitler, would you shoot?” (Comfort, 2011). Comfort employs a use of the three rhetorical appeals to persuade, argue, and witness to those who are interviewed throughout the video. Comfort employs the use of pathos at times such as at minute 6:00-7:28 when Comfort begins asking people the question “If you had a rifle and a clear shot of Hitler, would you kill him?” then asks everyone “It’s thirty years earlier, Hitler’s mom is pregnant with him and you know what he is going to do in the future, do you take her out?” this was to evoke thoughts and pull at the heartstrings of the interviewees as they are now involving someone else’s

God calls Christians to share his word with all the inhabitants of earth throughout the Bible, the verse listed above is just one of many verses found in which God calls all Christians to share his word or “witness” to nonbelievers. Witnessing is mentioned again in the Bible “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15, New King James Translation). When sharing the gospel with those who are not receptive to the idea of God, Rhetoric can be an immensely useful tool in changing hearts. Billy Graham, one of the most well-known evangelists in the world, uses rhetoric in his book “The Reason for My Hope: Salvation”. In Graham’s book, Chapter one is started off with testimonies of surviving plane crashes, floating at sea for forty-seven days, and medical miracles, all of which were near death experiences to say the least (Graham, 2013, pg. 1-4). The way that Graham started off chapter one of his book exhibits a use of pathos, all the stories referred to were meant to appeal to the emotions of the reader in question. Graham used the heart-changing story of Louis Zamperini’s life as part of the introduction as well to share Louis’ testimony of redemption, from being a prisoner of war during World War Two, becoming an alcoholic when he returned home, to his wife