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The three modes of persuasion and rhetoric identified by Aristotle are ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ethos is an appeal to authority or credibility. Pathos is an appeal to emotions. Logos is an appeal to reason.

I think we overvalue logos.



> I think we overvalue logos.

Only if we let the ends justify the means. If we consider them as ways to learn about the world, logos beats the other two hands down.

That being said, I am slowly turning into a Machiavellian pragmatist: what can I say that will get the results I want? Mayhap that would be the best approach to change peoples' minds. Some people would call it deceitfulness; others would call it diplomacy.




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