What is Ethos?

     Have you ever seen a speaker who is obviously unprepared and looking unprofessional? What about an athlete who endorses a sporting goods product? What about a business which has a dress code for it’s employees? All of these occurrences are based in the Aristotelean idea of ethos.

     In order to fully understand ethos, we have to reach back to the roots of classical rhetoric. Aristotle, in his book Ars Rhetorica, enumerated three modes of persuasion: logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos was considered logical proof, such as statistics, data, and other types of formal reasoning. Pathos is an emotional appeal, like when a commercial sets a particular emotional mood that’s persuasive. But ethos is more difficult to define. 

     In his typical wordy style, Aristotle defines ethos as persuasion “achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible.” To break that down a bit further, it is the way the audience feels about a speaker. When the audience likes whoever is doing the persuading, they are more likely to be persuaded. 

     The definition is only partially complete, however, because it only accounts for one half of ethos. The portion described is invented ethos. Invented ethos is the way the audience feels about the speaker, due to what he says. If a speaker were to mention that he had a doctorate in the field he was speaking about, you would instinctively trust his knowledge. The second type of ethos is perceived ethos. This is the way that your audience feels about you, based on anything except what you say. An example would be the way an audience feels about a well dressed man versus a sloppily dressed man.

The man on the left has a better professional ethos than the same man on the right

     To not use the principles of ethos in daily life would be like only studying for two thirds of an exam. Sure, you don’t “have” to do it, but the benefits are immense. When you look at any true leader, they’ve learned to harness their ethos and use it to their own advantage. In the coming posts, Caleb and I will look at the practical reasons for why ethos is essential to daily life, and how to create it, harness it, and use it to your advantage.

Jack Lodmell