reply to post by Moonsouljah
He was probably getting a degree in Rhetoric, is my guess...
en.wikipedia.org...
Aristotle's treatise on rhetoric is an attempt to systematically describe civic rhetoric as a human art or skill (techne). His definition of rhetoric
as "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion," essentially a mode of discovery, seems to limit the art to the
inventional process, and Aristotle heavily emphasizes the logical aspect of this process. But the treatise in fact also discusses not only elements of
style and (briefly) delivery, but also emotional appeals (pathos) and characterological appeals (ethos). He thus identifies three steps or "offices"
of rhetoric—invention, arrangement, and style—and three different types of rhetorical proof:
* ethos: how the character and credibility of a speaker can influence an audience to consider him/her to be believable.
Today, this is still an effective means of persuading an audience; however, shrewd, critical listeners will note whether the "expert's" actual
arguments are as impressive and satisfying as his or her title, to avoid the informal logical fallacy of an Appeal to Authority.
o This could be any position in which the speaker—from being a college professor of the subject, to being an acquaintance of person who experienced
the matter in question—knows about the topic.
o For instance, when a magazine claims that An MIT professor predicts that the robotic era is coming in 2050, the use of big-name "MIT" (a
world-renowned American university for the advanced research in math, science, and technology) establishes the "strong" credibility.
* pathos: the use of emotional appeals to alter the audience's judgment.
o This can be done through metaphor, amplification, storytelling, or presenting the topic in a way that evokes strong emotions in the
audience.
* logos: the use of reasoning, either inductive or deductive, to construct an argument.
o Logos appeals include appeals to statistics, math, logic, and objectivity. For instance, when advertisements claim that their product is
37% more effective than the competition, they are making a logical appeal.
o Inductive reasoning uses examples (historical, mythical, or hypothetical) to draw conclusions.
o Deductive reasoning, or "enthymematic" reasoning, uses generally accepted propositions to derive specific conclusions. The term logic
evolved from logos. Aristotle emphasized enthymematic reasoning as central to the process of rhetorical invention, though later rhetorical theorists
placed much less emphasis on it.