The Ancient Art of Persuasion

Jul 19, 2024

3 min read

In a recent trip to Italy, I found myself standing in the beautiful Raphael Rooms in the Vatican. One-of-a-kind masterpieces surrounded me, with an in-your-face majesty that only seeing it in person could convey. But one piece in particular was magnetic in a sea of grandiosity: The School of Athens. Renowned for its ability to perfectly capture the Renaissance, The School of Athens visually represents philosophy, with Plato and his student Aristotle front and center.

Aristotle is a fascinating figure in history. Much of his writings still continue to influence Western knowledge, yet very little is known about his life. But thanks to his writings, Rhetoric, we know that the art of persuasion is an age-old phenomenon. It’s a motive that dates back to 300 BC era. And Aristotle, as he did with most of his profound principles, continues to influence how communicators persuade through their craft.

The Three Artistic Proofs

Aristotle wrote three books that make up his famous writings, Rhetoric. It was these books that introduced the world to the three modes of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos. While our methods of persuasion are evolving with emerging psychology and communication research, his strategies are still the bedrock to current-day marketing as we know it. Let’s take a deep dive into the three artistic proofs he outlined.

Ethos. Ethos is a Greek word meaning “character,” and in Aristotle’s books he defines ethos to include expertise and knowledge. In the art of persuasion, establishing credibility and integrity are critical to getting an audience be open to your message. Without ethos, argues Aristotle, a person’s persuasive argument is suspect or invalid. He believes that a person must demonstrate the three categories of ethos in order to be trusted by the audience:

Phronesis: wisdom
Arete: ethics
Eunoia: altruism to others (particularly the audience)

While Aristotle outlined ethos to be only what the person is saying, many argue that ethos embodies what the audience knows about a person’s moral character, including his/her past behavior and the audience’s existing perceptions.

As we are seeing consumer skepticism increase more in today’s era, it is more important than ever to make sure that your company or spokesperson is establishing credibility and integrity first before sharing a message. Without ethos, your message can land flat, be interpreted as insincere, or with bad intent.

Pathos. The commercial that makes you teary-eyed. The speech given with conviction. The personal story that made you laugh. All of these are examples of pathos. Pathos is a way of using emotions to appeal and connect to your audience. Aristotle went in great depth in discussing how to appeal to an audience’s emotions, even outlining complementary emotions and how they may counteract the other. For example, when you are talking to an angry person, respond with acceptance to diffuse the situation. According to Aristotle, using pathos to appeal to your audience will only work when the person has a clear understanding of: the audience’s emotional state and frame of mind, the different types of emotion in the audience, and how much influence the person has on the emotions of the audience. Given that quickly assessing the emotional state of a large audience can be challenging, he encourages the person to understand social situations and their dynamics, and infuse emotions in the introduction and conclusion of a persuasive argument. We see this practice commonly deployed with attorneys in a criminal case.

When you think about emotional storytelling and pathos in your communications, it is important to recognize the emotional state of the audience first, and respond to those emotions in an empathetic way.

Logos. No, Aristotle did not encourage us to include logos on all of our marketing. Rather, he defined logos as a key component in persuasion in order to appeal to the audience’s logical side. Data, facts, expert testimony and more all help to strengthen a persuasive argument. Often, many people turn to logos first to persuade their audience. And while logos is a critical component to a persuasive argument, Aristotle believes that an audience cannot be persuaded on logic or reason alone. Logos must be combined with pathos and ethos in order to truly be effective.

As you think about your communications and marketing, are you over-indexing on appealing to a person’s logical side? Have you connected emotionally? Have you recognized your audience’s emotional state? Have you established your integrity? Aristotle believes all of these are critical to making an audience receptive to your message, and open to agreeing to your point of view.