St. Augustine's The Art Of Rhetoric

Rhetoric

If you stood up in front of 20,000 people, will you be able to overcome any problem and convince your listeners? Rhetoric, as the great Aristotle defined it, is “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion” (“The Art of Rhetoric”). Rhetoric has the power to change people´s mind about any subject in particular, ergo it has the ability to make significant changes. As it has been already said, this public speaking faculty has as a main purpose, the power of convincing an audience. This crucial art has been used since ancient times so we should examine its origin, main proponents, its persuasive approaches, and its relationship with dialectic. So the reader can gain the full knowledge in order to apply

This thought ended as foundations for this art. We have other well-known rhetoricians as Quintilan that studied the characteristics of a perfect orator, St. Augustine created the rhetoric of the sermon, and W.E.B Du Bois who convinced mainly in black´s civil rights. Next, Aristotle identified three main persuasive appeals. These are means by which the speaker can induce the hearer into believing his/her point. One is Ethos, from the Greek word meaning “character”, which means that an orator will be believed if he/she is credible enough. We are inclined to accept the point of someone who has a good reputation. The three characteristic that a speaker should have are: Enough knowledge, morality, and a selfless outcome of the situation. The other, Pathos, from the Greek word meaning “suffering” “experience”; which is the ability of a speaker to arouse emotion on its crowd. The fervent passion with which it is spoken or written, and the ability to understand emotions to know which one produce on the spectators will give an advantage to the speaker. The last one, Logos, from the Greek word meaning “to reason”; which is the ability to convince through our