Introduction to Logic and Rhetoric - Course Introduction

If we told you right now that pizza was the platonic ideal of all foods, you would either agree with us—because we're right, and you also love pizza. Or you would be all, "where's your proof, Shmoop? You can't just throw out a subjective statement like that, and expect us to eat it up like it's objective fact."

And you'd be right.

But if we were to follow up that statement with our credentials as food scientists, thorough data about the positive impact of pizza on human health and longevity, and an incredibly moving story about how pizza was the last meal we ate with our late dog, Fido, you…probably still wouldn't agree that pizza is the best of foods because all of those are terrible, suspect arguments.

But they at least attempt to make use of ethos (appeals to ethics, i.e. convincing someone of your reliability as a source), logos (appeals to logic and knowledge, like using statistics and facts), and pathos (appeals to emotions, like using a sob story about your dead dog).

They don't make very good use of those key rhetorical strategies, but by the end of this course, you will.

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