In a sense, ethos does not belong to the speaker but to the audience and it's appealing to the audience's emotions. phronesis – useful skills & practical wisdom.Others, however, contend that a speaker's ethos extends to and is shaped by the overall moral character and history of the speaker-that is, what people think of his or her character before the speech has even begun (cf Isocrates).Īccording to Aristotle, there are three categories of ethos: Ethos is limited, in his view, by what the speaker says. This can involve 'moral competence' only Aristotle, however, broadens the concept to include expertise and knowledge. Speakers must establish ethos from the start. In rhetoric, ethos (credibility of the speaker) is one of the three artistic proofs ( pistis, πίστις) or modes of persuasion (other principles being logos and pathos) discussed by Aristotle in ' Rhetoric' as a component of argument.

For example, according to the Jewish historian Arie Krampf, ideas of economic modernization which were imported into Palestine in the 1930s brought about 'the abandonment of the agrarian ethos and the reception of.the ethos of rapid development'. Įthos may change in response to new ideas or forces. Similarly the historian Orlando Figes wrote in 1996 that in Soviet Russia of the 1920s 'the ethos of the Communist party dominated every aspect of public life'. Eliot wrote in 1940 that 'the general ethos of the people they have to govern determines the behavior of politicians'. In modern usage, ethos denotes the disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific person, people, corporation, culture, or movement. As an adjective in the neuter plural form ta ethika. 5 Character, or ethos, in pictorial narrativeĮthos ( ἦθος, ἔθος plurals: ethe, ἤθη ethea, ἤθεα) is a Greek word originally meaning 'accustomed place' (as in ἤθεα ἵππων 'the habitats of horses', Iliad 6.511, 15.268), 'custom, habit', equivalent to Latin mores.Įthos forms the root of ethikos ( ἠθικός), meaning 'morality, showing moral character'.

Etos com