7.2 Ethos, Pathos, Logos and Kairos

Notes

Aristotle identified three appeals (persuasive strategies); a fourth idea, kairos, concerns timing.

• Ethos: appeal to credibility or character ("I have served this town for twenty years").
• Pathos: appeal to emotion (vivid stories, imagery, sympathetic details).
• Logos: appeal to logic and evidence (facts, statistics, reasoning).
• Kairos: the right moment; a message works because it fits the time.
• Strong arguments often combine appeals.
• Worked example: A doctor says, "As a physician for thirty years, I have seen the studies show that vaccines reduce infection by 90 percent." Ethos: her experience. Logos: the studies.