1 of 27

Slide Notes

DownloadGo Live

Persuasion: the golden art of rhetoric. An introduction designed for use with the Declaration of Independence.

Published on Nov 24, 2015

This introduces basic principles of rhetoric (argument, ethos, logos, pathos) while looking at the introductory language of the Declaration of Independence.

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Persuasion:
the golden art
of rhetoric

The Founding Fathers needed to draft an argument fit for a king.

Context

  • 1765-1776: England imposes hard Acts (taxes) upon its citizens in the colonies.
  • 1774: The 1st Continental Congress forms with representatives from all 13 colonies.
  • June 7, 1776: Richard Henry Lee (2nd Continental Congress) proposes to break with England. A committee of five is formed to draft the statement, a declaration of war (independence).

Context

  • June 11- July 4, the committee drafts the Declaration.
  • June 28, the committee finishes their draft and presents it to Congress.
  • July 4, the Declaration is published. (The signers, btw, are now official traitors and will hang if caught.)

The Committee includes: Franklin (PA), Adams (MA), Jefferson (VA), Livingston (NY), and Sherman (CT)

Jefferson drafts. Franklin and Adams edit.

How did they write it?
Well, when persuading
a king ...

Consider the three
rhetorical arguments:

1. Logos

Logic-based claims (facts, data)

2. Ethos

Ethics-based claims (common values)

3. Pathos

Sympathy-based arguments

Logos. Ethos.
The most persuasive.

Beware pathos!
(Unless used correctly,
it can be whiney.)

The Committee used logos and ethos.

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bands which have connected them
to another ...

"a decent respect ... requires they declare the causes that impel [force] them to the separation."

Logic-based?
Ethics-based?
Look at the language:

"When in the course of human events it
becomes necessary...

... they should
declare the causes
that impel [force] them
to the separation."

They started with ethics: argument based on what is
right and proper.

What about the
next arguments?
Ethical or logical?

"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."

"He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."

"He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly ..."

For the heart of the declaration, they used logic, argument based on provable fact.

Thesis: ethical
Evidence: logical
Language: memorable

The three rhetorical arguments:
Ethos (based on shared values)
Logos (based on provable fact)
Pathos (based on sympathetic situations)