ETHOS
Through out history the selling of any given product or idea has been achievable by establishing speaker or product credibility. If there was even the slightest inclination of a fallacy in a speaker’s credibility his entire message was useless and deemed irrelevant. Today we see an enormous amount of bogus material that claims to be credible just because it is on the Internet, or on television. We see a majority of the population succumb to their gullible instinct because it is readily available and easy to grasp information. This form of credibility is a far cry from the root definition of the concept in Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Through out this analysis I will be explaining what Aristotle’s definition of speaker credibility (Ethos) and how it was formulated in his eyes. Then I will be moving on to how weight loss commercials such as xenadrine and hydroxycut try to establish credibility by appealing to certain people using celebrities and Doctor testimonials.
Aristotle defines the concept of Ethos many different ways throughout his views on rhetoric. Aristotle says that in order for a speaker to effectively persuade we must perceive him as being credible (ethos), which he defines as the personal character of a speaker. In book one chapter two Aristotle claims that what the speaker should achieve speaker credibility actually says, and not by what people think of him prior to his speech. I believe Aristotle is saying that it is important to listen to what the speaker is actually saying rather than making judgments based on what you think about him prior to his speech. Aristotle claims that the information should be the most important part of the speech with this statement, it isn’t about who the speaker is rather than how the speaker can prove how accurate his statements are. Aristotle also proclaims that a statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that is so....