Darwinian Theory Of Beauty Pathos

In 2010 on the media network called TED, Denis Dutton, a famous philosopher, gave his speech called “A Darwinian Theory Of Beauty.” It was about his idea that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, but it is actually some understanding we are born with because of evolution. The speech was very interesting. As it is with any speech, it's important to know both, what the speaker is trying to say, how they are saying it, and how they can convince you of their idea. There are three methods used to convince somebody of an idea and that is ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ethos is the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations. Mr. Dutton is a philosopher. This made his speech already convincing and believable. He also gives lots of information throughout the whole speech, which makes him seem very intelligent.

Pathos is a quality that evokes pity or sadness.

Mr. Dutton used pathos by starting his speech with attention grabbing words that evokes positive emotions from the audience. He also gives a lot of examples like how people like junk food. He gave very specific examples. He used beautiful visuals when he talked about the peacock. “The peacock's magnificent tail is the most famous example of this. It did not evolve for natural survival. In fact, it goes against natural survival. No, the peacock's tail results from the mating choices made by peahens.”(3) When he stated this it explained how the peacock being so colorful and beautiful kept it alive all these years. There for making the peacock evolve little to none. His way of speaking drew people’s attention. This characteristic makes him very

memorable.
Lastly, there is logos. Logos are a literary device that can be defined as a statement, sentence or argument . Mr. Dutton does not really use a lot of facts, but he does use logic. For example, he states, “ Beauty is an adaptive effect, which we extend and intensify in the creation and enjoyment of works of art and entertainment.”(2) He also talks about how we find the most beautiful landscape in where we come from, and the way that he explains it seems logical, which helps make the audience agree with him. When Mr. Dutton says things like this, it makes the audience believe it is true, but it could just be his personal opinion. But, he does give lots of factual statements about evolution, natural selection, and Charles Darwin. For example, when he says “Natural selection also explains many basic revulsion…”(4), he goes on to prove that his previous statement was a fact. This makes the audience believe what he is saying without any suspicion.
Throughout the 15 minutes and 26 seconds of his speech, Denis Dutton provides a lot of information and a lot of very believable ideas. He is very good at convincing people and making them believe him. He used all of the three appeals to get the audience's attention. He used ethos mostly in the beginning when he describes the beauty from his perspective. He used pathos in the beginning and the end, when he describes beauty, but also throughout the rest of his speech. Logos are the one that probably was used the most. Mr. Dutton has some different and very intelligent ideas about beauty There are actually a lot of similarities in what we all find beautiful. And that, in itself, is beautiful.

Works Cited
Dutton, Denis. “A Darwinian Theory of Beauty.” Denis Dutton: A Darwinian Theory of Beauty
TED Talk, February 2010. 5 November 2017.