Chapter 7 Reading

 In Chapter 7 of Ancient Rhetorics the author discuses Pathos and its uses in rhetorical arguments. Pathos is a valuable asset because of the decisions it pushes us towards that we may not make in another situation. The book uses a good example of this from the film Troy where the king is trying to persuade Achilles to help him by using different pathos appeals such as to his greed and empathy. A common example of this found in Pullman, WA is fighting where many people would not commit assault against another if the right pathos is used ones choice can be swayed an example of this might be “talking shit” about a certain person or group of people. Pathos is also useful in sports when motivating a team the coach will apply pathos to get the players pumped up through applying this kind of argument to subjects of school or personal pride.

The power of pathos is demonstrated in the authors story about how the 9/11 attacks motivated the decision to support the war on terror whereas now that the shock and grief of the even has worn down the support is significantly less. I feel that it is the most important of the the three appeals when concerning politcs. You can only sway so many people with ethos or logos but the concept of pathos applies to everyone of all ages. We all have emotion from the day we are born and there are concepts that are common to everyone that incite those emotions, for example murder is a concept that incites emotion of the masses because the majority of us share the same response to murder due to our culture. This is why I think pathos is the most important political tool because instead of aiming at a particular group of people it stirs up everyone.