Ethos Excavation

The way we have come to understand the concept of “ethos” today is very different from its starting place. The first Greek usage of ethos means “an accustomed place” but can also be translated to mean “custom” or “habit.” From these translations, we eventually arrive at the transition for “disposition,” which leads to a more well known translation of ethos. Ethos, as most of us know it, derived from the Greek word “ethikos” (ἠθικός), which means “moral character.”

Aristotle’s Rhetoric is the first text to lay out the specifics of what ethos actually entails. Aristotle believed that ethos should be established with an audience as a device for persuasive proof. He states, “The orator persuades by moral character when his speech is delivered in such a manner as to render him worthy of confidence; for we feel confidence in a greater degree and more readily in persons of worth in regard to everything in general, but where there is no certainty and there is room for doubt, our confidence is absolute.”

Ancient rhetoricians had different views of ethos. Isocrates thought that moral character should be demonstrated both inside and outside of speech context. Aristotle disagreed with Isocrates. Aristotle believed that preconceived notions have nothing to do with a person’s ethos, and it ethos comes from the audience’s current view of the speaker. According to Aristotle, “this confidence must be due to the speech itself, not to any preconceived idea of the speaker's character; for it is not the case, as some writers of rhetorical treatises lay down in their “Art,” that the worth of the orator in no way contributes to his powers of persuasion; on the contrary, moral character, so to say, constitutes the most effective means of proof.”

Today’s word “ethics” is derived from the Greek “ethos”, and ethics means the study of values motivated by concepts of right and wrong. It is rare, outside the field of rhetoric, to hear the term ethos; however, modern day terms have stemmed from this concept. Today, we often use the term speaker credibility. Most of the current research surrounding speaker credibility is in the fields of business, politics and journalism. Currently, ethos of political figures is of utmost importance as we approach the coming presidential election. Research in politics states that ethos can be established in both written and spoken contexts and that candidates will often discredit another candidate’s goodwill.

Sources:

Aristotle, Rhetoric (ed. J. H. Freese)

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ethos

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=ethics

Murphy, J. M. (2004). The language of the liberal consensus: John F. Kennedy, technical reason, and the "new economics" at Yale University. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 90(2), 113-162.

Poulakos, Takis. Speaking for the Polis: Isocrates' Rhetorical Education. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 1997.