Rhetoric is at the heart of the battle for power in at least 64 countries which go to the polls this year – an extraordinary year in politics. While the Ancient sandals may have been swapped for Oxford brogues, Aristotle’s rhetorical pillars of ethos, pathos and logos have never been more relevant.
Just where is the world headed? When a debate between the two men vying to become President of the world’s largest superpower degenerates into golf trash talk, you know there are stormy waters ahead.
That’s exactly what happened in Trump vs Biden Round 1. Apparently being able to hit a ball 50 yards is far more important than the issues stacking up at home and abroad for the next President. In the ring, we had the challenger – the mighty ego representing pathos vs the incumbent who was doing his best to deflect with a shield coated with ethos.
But what of logos? Where is the influence of this third leg of the rhetorical tripod at this critical juncture in the history of the world. After all, logos represents logical argument and reasoned debate which is backed by facts, figures and evidence to “tell it like it is”.
It was another Greek from Ancient times, the playwright and ‘Father of Comedy’, Aristophanes, who came up with the phrase ‘”to call a fig a fig and a trough a trough” and this little case study is actually a lovely illustration of logos at work with the phrase quickly reaching a point of logical reasoning.
Away from the big stage, where ethos hogs the spotlight and pathos bathes in its glow, logos is the rhetorical device which influences most of us in our daily lives. Logos is the place where grown up conversations are had. Admittedly we often get too hung up on the figures (as Churchill famously said “there are lies, damned lies and statistics”) but generally they act as a fairly reliable guide to action.
In lawmaking, the use of facts, data and carefully compiled evidence is used to make a compelling case in the court room. It also runs through policy at local and national government level and business moves, small and large. It is the essence of decision making; to sit down, look at the facts and come to an agreement about the next course of action.
Of course, that is not say that a good lawyer can’t bend logos to their will by presenting the facts in their hands as credible! This is where a judge and jury ideally performs their roles as a filter through which the truth becomes apparent. It doesn’t always work however, as a system of justice, it isn’t bad.
This is why the hijacking of reason by those more interested in letting pathos run wild is a disturbing trend in this year of so many international elections. When the facts are not only debated, but openly contested in the form of presenting ‘alternative facts’ based on opinion, emotion and who shouts them loudest, as society we should be concerned.
The best use of rhetoric in a presentation scenario involves getting the ingredients right. Yes facts and figures on their own are boring – it’s why I have written about Death by Powerpoint and cautioned against ignoring your audience. So adding a teaspoon of ethos, to show your audience why the logic makes sense and a sprinkle of pathos to make the presentation come alive goes a long way.
I’ll leave you with this delightful quote from Fleur Kingham, current President of the Australian Association of Women Judges.
“Logos targets the brain; it is the logical rational aspect of argument. Pathos is about the heart; moving the listener to want to accept the proposition. Ethos appeals to the gut – the instinctual response to the person – that sense of whether we can trust what we are being told”.
