The Question: What ethical responsibilities does an author have in using ‘ethos’ and ‘pathos’? Does our media, or our government, often live up to those ethical expectations?
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When you use ethos and pathos for an argument, in order for it to be ethical, your argument must be ethical. To you, at least. Now this is sort of obvious, but it's what the question asked. If you thought that eating tomatos was unethical, to write an argument advocating the consumption of tomatos would be unethical. The use of appealing to such powerful rhetorical devices such as ethos and pathos would not only make your argument less ethical (from the tomato-lover's point of view) but much more powerful as well.
So basically, the ethical responsibilities are to keep the argument within the bounds of moral reason.
Another thing that I believe is an ethical responsibility, though some people will disagree with me, is that in an absolutely ethical argument designed to convince, one should appeal to logos and ethos the most and leave pathos out of it as much as possible. Logic, to be truly logical, is unbiased. It is based on conclusions drawn from facts. There may be one or more conclusions drawn from said facts, but if they are presented merely as logical options, then they are not swaying you towards one or another because of feelings. If you appeal to pathos, you're then clouding the judgment with emotion, distracting and influencing you away from considering all options equally. While in an argument designed solely to convinced, it is practical to do that, however in an argument that takes into account ethics as well, it is not quite so ethical.
I hope that makes sense.
And the major, most obvious question concerning ethos is that you should not claim credibility when you don't have any. If people discover your lies and lack of credibility, they will be angry.
As for the second question- of course the media and government don't live up to those expectations. The expectations are ideals. No one or thing is perfect. The media is usually at least a little biased towards something, and the government is the most biased thing on the planet. Look at all the political issues that to be a successful politician you have to pick sides on.
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1 comment:
I can tell you really thought out your opinion on this. Your back up your points well and yet i still disagree with you. i think morals are what you decide for yourself not ethics. i understand the point you were trying to make though. i also semidisagree with your point that pathos shouldn't be used all too often in an argument. i understand that you think it shouldn't be used because argument points should be looked at objectively but i think pathos is a great element in making a strong argument. if you want to get a point across to someone...and they have never felt how you have felt before, pathos will get them to emotionallyy connect with your argument. i thought your blog was really interesting even though i didnt see eye to eye with you.
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