Logos, Ethos, and Pathos

	Logos	Ethos	Pathos
Definition	Appeal to reason and logic	Projection of the speaker or writer’s character or personal authority	Appeal to emotions and values
Case study	Reasons why you can’t go	You can’t go because I say so	Weeping so you won’t go

Aristotle	Reason	Will	Emotion
Wizard of Oz	Scarecrow	Lion; Dorothy	Tinman
Star Trek	Spock	Kirk	McKoy
Superheros	Vision	Batman	Hulk
Harry Potter	Hermione	Dumbledore	Ron
LOTR	Elrond	Gandalf	Gollum

Evidence	Statistics, informal logic	Experts	Anecdotes
Methods	Scientific method, factual details, unbiased reportage	Narrative and descriptive details, cases, and examples to back up and support generalizations and demonstrate accuracy	Narrative and descriptive details calculated to evoke an emotional response
Problems and weaknesses	No “soul”	Bankrupt personal authority or character	Suspicions of manipulation
Remembering	Logos, Logic	E is for Ethos and Ethical	Pathos, Passion (an emotion)

Jung suggests healthy individual are characterized by a balance of reason, will, and emotion. We are suspicious of people who are stuck in one mode of thought.
The best thinkers, speakers, and writers move among argumentative strategies, adapting to variations in audience. For example, in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King shifts strategies to speak to different segments of his audience.
Ethos often mediates between logos and pathos.