Logos

4 Key excerpts on "Logos"

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  eBook - ePub

  Rhetorical Public Speaking

  Social Influence in the Digital Age

  • Nathan Crick(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  8     Logos

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003316787-8

  The rhetorical character of Logos was present at its very origin. When citizens of Classical Greece used the word Logos, it referred to words, arguments, or reason. For example, the term dissoi logoi (meaning “double arguments”) was a common phrase that referred to the Greek belief that there were always two or more arguments opposed on every issue. The Greeks acquired this belief largely because of their reliance on courts of law to decide almost any dispute. Any time two people came into conflict, their instinct was to bring this conflict into court in order to hear both sides and come to a practical judgment. In these sorts of rhetorical contexts, Logos refers to the use of rational arguments and evidence to persuade an audience of the reasonableness of one’s position. It is based on the belief that human beings are rational beings with the potential to make decisions based on logic, principles, and evidence.

  The study of rhetoric corresponded with the study of logic, for both were grounded in the faith that human beings are rational creatures who seek reasons for their actions. Without the faith that people make better practical judgments when presented with more comprehensive and accurate facts, we would be forced to rely purely on either habit, passion, or luck. The difference between rhetoric and logic is that whereas logic examines the validity and coherence of argumentative propositions apart from the situated context of action, rhetoric is concerned with how arguments affect specific audiences in specific times and places. In addition, rhetoric does not neglect the importance of other rhetorical appeals like ethos and pathos. Rhetoricians understand that while reason plays a vital role in human decision making, it is rarely, if ever, sufficient for successful persuasion. Often, our emotions are necessary to judge right from wrong, effective from ineffective, and pleasure from pain. Likewise, our ability to discern who is a more reliable advisor during times of crisis can rarely be made by logic alone. In fact, our need to trust other people usually arises precisely when logic reaches its practical limit. The very idea of the rhetorical situation supports this conclusion—for if we had all the facts that we needed to make a decision, we would hardly need to be persuaded of anything.

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  eBook - ePub

  Studies in Rhetoric & Communication

  Disability, Identification, Haptics

  • Shannon Walters(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • University of South Carolina Press

    (Publisher)

  Baumlin and Baumlin, for example, while arguing that mythos “reaches beyond conventional logic,” also assume that rhetors possess a “health of the soul” that is not readily accessible for people with psychological difference (“Psyche/Logos” 257, 247). As Price describes, in this understanding rhetoric functions as a “healing story,” and the “possibility that a mind might be radically unhealed, unwell (in conventional terms), that it might be crazy or neuroatypical—this possibility is not offered space even in the expanded version of rhetorical appeals” (Mad at School 32). Despite the tendency to rationalize Logos and to exclude rhetors with psychological disability, the concept of Logos possesses fluidity and materiality that potentially broaden its reach, even for rhetors for whom “rationality” or “reasonableness” in the traditional or normative sense may not be possible. Kennedy, exploring the many meanings of Logos in Greek history, notes that Logos “is anything that is ‘said,’ but that can be a word, a sentence, part of a speech or of a written work, or a whole speech. It connotes the content rather than the style … it can also mean ‘argument,’ and ‘reason,’ and that can be further extended to mean ‘order’ as perceived in the world” (A New History 11). This extension raises the possibility that order can be “perceived” in many ways, perhaps even in potentially nonnormative ways. George Kerferd extends the concept of Logos further, explaining that there are at least three parts to Logos: “What we are confronted with is not strictly speaking one word with a number of different meanings, but rather a word with a range of applications,” including “an extra-linguistic reference to something which is supposed to be the case in the world around us” (83). He posits this tripartite approach to Logos: “There are at least three main areas of its application or use, all related by an underlying conceptual unity

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  eBook - ePub

  Preaching the New Testament as Rhetoric

  The Promise of Rhetorical Criticism for Expository Preaching

  • MacBride(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wipf and Stock

    (Publisher)

  8

  Logos : Rational Argument

  The final type of proof to which we now turn is that which receives the most attention in the handbooks: Logos , the use of rational argument. This is described by Aristotle as “the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself,”691 the goal of which is to prove “what is not certain by means of what is certain.”692 Although such arguments can be found anywhere throughout the speech, they are found most frequently in the “proof” section (pistis , probatio , or confirmatio ). The writer to Herennius describes it as “the presentation of our arguments, together with their corroboration,”693 while the writer to Alexander refers to it as the process of “adducing proofs and by considerations of justice and expediency.”694 In other words, Logos is the mode of persuasion by which the propositio is defended by rational argument.

  Aristotle divided these arguments into two kinds: those constructed by the speaker himself (which he termed entechnos , or “artificial”), and those which are provided externally (atechnos , or “inartificial”):

  By the latter I understand all those which have not been furnished by ourselves but were already in existence, such as witnesses, tortures, contracts, and the like; by the former, all that can be constructed by system and by our own efforts. Thus we have only to make use of the latter, whereas we must invent the former.695

  A few centuries later, Quintilian affirmed Aristotle’s division as being “met with almost universal approval.”696 We will thus examine Logos

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  Philosophy for Life: Teach Yourself

  The Ideas That Shape Our World and How To Use Them

  • Mel Thompson(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Teach Yourself

    (Publisher)

  4 Language and Communication

  In this chapter you will:

  •   Learn about how different forms of language function

  •   Consider how language may be assessed and its claims verified

  •   Look at formal logic and the limitations of rational discourse

  •   Explore issues with structuralism and the media

  Why?

  We all use language, and the more careful and precise our use of it, the greater clarity we have in explaining ourselves and assessing the value and cogency of what others say. Not all language is factual – we may enjoy reading fiction or poetry, may cheer on a team or whisper endearments into a lover’s ear. Is that strictly true or false? Should it/could it be justified in terms of facts? What does language actually do? ‘With this ring I thee wed’ is a classic example of language that makes something happen. So does saying it make it true? None of us wants to be called illogical, but language is more than logic and description. When a politician says ‘Take back control!’, what does that actually mean? Beware of the power of the slogan.

  Language is the vehicle through which the ideas and concepts of philosophy are transmitted. It might be tempting therefore to assume that language has a necessary but secondary role, communicating what is already known. But that would be mistaken, for philosophical issues arise within, and often as a result of our language. A basic question in philosophy is, ‘What do we mean by…?’ which asks for more than a definition; it seeks to relate the thing we are interested in to the rest of our ideas and language. The language we use colours the way in which we think and experience the world, so it is unwise to philosophize without being aware of the role played by language.

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