Comparative ritique on thos, Pathos and Logos of Two Articles - Assignment Example

Comparative critique on ethos, pathos and logos of two articles Contents Comparative critique on ethos, pathos and logos of two articles 1 Contents 1 Introduction 1 Conclusion and comparisons 9 References 9 Introduction Someone has remarked that a persuasive speaker is a leader, and an informative speaker is a teacher. There is a great deal of commitment involved in persuasive speaking than in informative speaking; while the former provides the listener with a number of options to choose and act from, the later actually clarifies and reveals options. At the same time persuasive speakers bind themselves in higher levels of ethical obligations, the informative speakers don't. One aspect of persuasive speaking is the weaving together of the emotional aspect in the speech that is being delivered, which may, in reality, be not necessitated to be involved in the speech. World leaders incorporate several focal points in their speeches, which include but are not limited to question of fact, question of value, and question of policy. The first one urges the audience to argue on an existing fact, which may be true or false. The second one urges the audience to argue on something that is moral or immoral, better or worse or right or wrong. And the last one is to involve audience in the speaker’s policy; willingness or not willingness notwithstanding. World leader have always used, and later been analyzed for ethos, pathos and logos in their speeches; thus establishing their credibility, emotional connection to the listeners or the audience and logical argument. This paper analyzes two such speeches from world leaders. One is Barack Obama’s inaugural presidential address delivered on January 20, 2009, and another speech delivered on January 31, 2012 by the Australian prime ministerial candidate Tony Abbott. This paper dissects and subsequently compares ethos, pathos, and logos of the speeches, one of which marked the turning points of American history and another promising something similar in Australia. Article 1: Barack Obama’s inaugural presidential address World leaders have always harped on the power of rhetoric in their speeches. Even though rhetoric is sometimes equated with being pompous and insincere, yet in case of Barack Obama it has been known to increase his credibility. Considered generally as a means of communication, rhetoric is mostly used to persuade. In all Western world has honed the Aristotelian secrets to being a persuasive speaker; what Aristotle wrote 2300 years ago finds as much relevance in the Western world today. It is , however, not limited in its influence elsewhere in the developed nations where it is used in abundance to garner support from audiences. Aristotle wrote in 4th century B.C. On Rhetoric, the subject of which was mainly the three persuasive appeals (Wordnerds.com.au). Ethos Ethos is credibility; an ethical appeal that gets across to the audiences by the character of the speaker. Those who are worth listening to create ethos among the listener or readers, and generally such people are the ones who are respected (Ramage & Bean, 1998, p81-82). While the ethos is discussed in his speech, his strong use of tricolon and anaphora in the speech must not be undermined. He begins his speech with a simple tricolon where he says he is "humbled by the task" that is before America, the trust the nation has bestowed upon him, and sacrifices that have been previously made by the nation's ancestors. Ethos is referred to as derivatives of “personality and stance” (Cockcroft & Cockcroft, 2005, p28). Then he doubles up third term on tricolon where he refers to "still waters of peace" and "rising tides of prosperity". He follows that up with neighbouring clauses interspersed with repetition of words at the start where he refers to "our" worker, minds, goods, services, and capacity in the positive light (Derek & McCue-Enser, 2010, p602-622). Similarly, he use anaphora powerfully by repeating the twin words of "for us" while invoking nostalgia about men who toiled for what America is today and who died in places like Gettysburg, Concord, Khe Sahn and Normandy (Griffin, Online). Barack Obama establishes ethos by referring to his bona fides; he, momentarily, transports the world audience back to the village (which he refers to humbly as small, creating more credibility when the smallness of his past is compared voluntarily to his magnanimous present) where his father was born. He also deliver ethos at another place in the speech swaying the audiences along with his victory and yet taking them sixty years back to an incident in which his father, a black, might not have been entertained by a local restaurant. Obama is known for his oratory and use of ethos in his speeches; one reason that could explain his high level of credibility even before he assumed office, which stayed at an elevated level even after that. Several months after Obama's inaugural address ABC and Washington Post conducted an opinion poll, which applauded the remarked ability of Obama as being a patient listener. He hits hyperspace at 90%, said the poll and added that 73 percent respondents believed he understood the problems of common people. The poll attributed this level of credibility to his "antecedent ethos" (Daniel, 2009, Online). Pathos Pathos is another of the persuasion triads and deals with the sympathetic imagination, emotions, values and beliefs. Pathos, to some extent, creates audience's role in the argument. It has also been said that both writers and speaker deliberately play on emotional factor in what they write or speak; an aspect that cannot be escaped (Cockcroft & Cockcroft, 2005, p55). Normally rhetorical triangle must be equally balanced by ethos, pathos and logos. In case of Barack Obama, it has been seen that he normally banks on the first two and does not touch logos as much as he does ethos and pathos. In this Barack Obama struck the right pathos with not only the estimated 3 million people gathered around him to listen with rapt attention the presidential address but also with the global audience through television channels that beamed on him and other rapid media that gave a bit by bit account of his speech. He creates an emotional vibration between the audiences there and everywhere when he refers to his 88-year-old father, living in England, whio telephoned him with "tears in his eyes" congratulating him on the victory. Barack Obama, in a very mature and immaculate manner indulges in subtle alliteration when he invokes strength on America's capacity which, in his words, "remains undiminished". Furthermore, using vivid imagery, he lets poetic heights soar to unexpected levels by way of short, witty, and sharp jabs like this: "The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood". Logos Aristotle considered logos as the most vital means of all types of persuasion. Plato, on the other hand, considered it as the legitimate one. The literal transliteration of logos from Greek means "a point that has an embedded meaning and yields sense behind everything else. In simpler terms it means reason, rational thinking, and logic. Logos is normally used to yield credence and effectiveness to an argument, and it is considered as the most honest of all the three triads of persuasion. It is considered to affect audiences in their judgment (Cockcroft & Cockcroft, 2005, p109). This is because if the audience contains logic; the same type of logic that logos has, it won't be possible for the speaker to befool the same. If logos is away from logic, it normally gives out fallacious reasoning. Logic can either be inductive, deductive or reductive. Inductive logic from being specific moves to being general, and does not have enough examples to bank upon; deductive transits from being general to specific and is based on a universal rule; and reductive logic is based on an extensive list of possible solutions, from which the best ones are picked up and the least workable eliminated. Since logos is solely based on logical thinking, any clumsy thinking can lead to logical fallacies, which are statements that might look sensible on the surface but on deep introspection they are nothing more than a bunch of cluttered thoughts. However reasonable a person may be, any flawed estimation of logic can run ones observation into trouble. It cannot be said whether or not this is the reason why Barack Obama steer clear of "too much" logos in his speeches, but in this speech he has crafted a careful logos when he reckons with words like "market", "generate wealth", "freedom is unmatched", "market can spin out of control", "success of America's economy" etc (ObamaSpeeches.com). Fallacy Barack Obama’s speech does not deal with fallacy. There could be two reasons for the same. One, he speaks as a commoner; wrapping his words as a commoner would like them to either speak or hear. Two, he is not figurative or statistical which helps him steer clear of any fallacy. Article II: Tony Abbott delivers speech on vision for Australia if elected Prime Minister Ethos Much of Tony Abbott's ethos comes from his seminarian background and rich upbringing in theology. Currently the federal leader of the centre-right Liberal party of Australia and leader of the opposition in Australian House of Representatives, Abbot has donned many roles which include that of a business manager, Executive Director of Australian for Constitutional Monarchy, political advisor and more importantly a journalist. It is a mix of all these that has led Abbot to see life from an objective perspective and critique it from non-partial stands. His ethos is driven by the fact that he has taken up different roles in Howard Government until it was defeated in federal election in 2007. The fact that in 2010 federal election he led the Liberal-National Opposition and gave the country a hung parliament defined him as the one who can sway minds – a fact that got reconfirmed when he was chosen as party's leader unopposed subsequently. His ethos also gets highlighted in the wake of the fact that he has been an active participant in a number of charity events in Australia and has also volunteered for NSW Rural Fire Service. When Abbot speaks, just like he did in this case, people can directly vouch for him as he has been very eloquent on Indigenous Affairs. Not only that, on a practical front, he has been to Aboriginal settlements in 2008 and 2009 in Cape York and taught the inhabitants there. This ethos also reflected in the speech wherein he commits himself to living at least for a week's time in an Aboriginal settlement, while he would work in order to help the country gain a stronger economical hold. Pathos Abbott touches upon the Aboriginality thing quite repeatedly; which can have two possible reasons. One is that he has been closely linked to them and second is that it, as usual, forms the cornerstone of any debate regarding or emanating from Australia; be the same in political or nonpolitical circles. Another emotional point that he exults is on promises made by political leaders to get elected which, more often than not, are forgotten in the long run. In this context he talks of aspirations as against promises that might seem to be building an emotional chord with the listeners. To bring home the point he uses such catchphrases like “principled administration”, and "bunch of squalid fixers". That he urges Australian “if he would be made the prime minister” and speaks as a matter of fact, can be termed as a rhetoric that stems from confidence. Pathos, that he generates, seems to him would work; hence the outspokenness (Farr, 2012). Logos Abbot has held almost all positions in the previous government and most of them have been on important issues, but sadly experience from not even one such position yields some logic in this speech. This is probably one reason why he has been dubbed as "philosopher-prince of the assertion-based community" (Keane, 2012). Critics have previuosly dubbed him as having no interest in evidence, logic or consistency. This speech, thus, does not hold much water in term of logos. Fallacy There is a lot of fallacy in this speech. It gives a feeling that everything that he says ad asserts could be true and nothing else. When he says "if I will be the prime minister" it indirectly sends a communiqué that "if I am the prime minister only I can do this since no one else has or will be able to accomplish." The fallacy is also evident since the speech does not give any policy or detail to back up what he claims for future just in case he is the prime minister. The speech creates its own reality which, momentarily may be believed to be true, but on close introspection might not prove to be so. Conclusion and comparisons Barack Obama has used ethos and pathos throughout his speech and dressed it up in common, plain language so that it could appeal every strata of life both within outside of America. Ethos and pathos that he delivers contains eloquence, even though critically it, it can be said that it was surrounded by too much of hype and camouflaged in high expectations. However there is an ideology of responsibility that reflects in the speech.. On a comparative note if Barack Obama’s speech has substance, Tony Abbott’s speech lack all of it. Tony Abbot even though seemingly aware of his audience does not seem to be exerting much to get across his candidacy accurately and efficiently to them While there is a bit of ethos creeping into the speech because of the Aboriginality factor, pathos and logos are completely absent. There is, however, of fallacy in his speech; something Obama can never ever afford in his. References Best Speeches of Barack Obama through his 2009 Inauguration. Obama Inaugural Address 20 Jan, 2009. Web. n.d. http://www.http://obamaspeeches.com Cockcroft, R and Cockcroft, S. Persuading People. Machmillan Press, 2005. p28 Cockcroft, R and Cockcroft, S. Persuading People. Machmillan Press, 2005. p55 Cockcroft, R and Cockcroft, S. Persuading People. Machmillan Press, 2005. p109 Daniel, H. “100 Days: Harry, I Have a Gift. Wall Street Journal. Web. April 30, 2009. Griffin, I. Obama: the Lion in Winter. Web. 20 Jan. 2009. John D. and John C. Bean. Writing Arguments. 4th Edition. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1998, 81-82. Farr, M. Tony Abbott delivers speech on vision for Australia if elected Prime Minister. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. http://www.news.com.au/national/tony-abbott-delivers-speech-on-vision-for-australia-if-elected-prime-minister/story-e6frfkw9-1226258362110#ixzz1vZqZ0K2k Kean, B. Tony Abbott: philosopher-prince of the assertion-based community. Web. 11 May. 2012. Sweet, Derek, and Margret McCue-Enser. Constituting 'the People' as Rhetorical Interruption: Barack Obama and the Unfinished Hopes of an Imperfect People. Communication Studies 61, no. 5, 2010: 602-622. The Language of Leadership - Using Rhetoric for Effective Speechwriting. Web. n.d. Read More