Background
Ethos CRS initially started as a speechwriting service—we wrote speeches and we trained people to write the spoken word. To instruct budding speechwriters today, we use the techniques developed in classical Greece, in Athens around 350 BC.
Aristotle was the genius who, among other things, formally investigated the nature, form and technical characteristics of rhetoric. In The Art of Rhetoric, he defined rhetoric as '... the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion'.
According to Aristotle, the persuasive appeal made by speaker to the audience is grounded in:
- the reason inherent in the argument (logos)
- the emotion developed in the breast of the audience (pathos)
- the ethical character of the speaker (ethos)
Ethos is the third basis of appeal and is furled within the person's own character (or the perception of the person's character). That is, an argument is made more plausible if a character is perceived to be, among other things, intelligent, competent, knowledgeable, honest, interested in the affairs of those listening. A speaker employs an ethical appeal to leave an audience with an impression of good sense, and benevolent, high moral character. Moreover, these impressions are created by the speaker in the course of a speech and are not the product of reputation or familiarity.
We picked Ethos then as our moniker because of this association with the rhetorical tradition and because of the suggestion of moral character.
This is where things get interesting
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle used ethos with two different spellings, ἔθος and ἤθος, to reflect separate meanings:
- ἔθος was used by Aristotle to denote habit or custom: 'Now some think that we are made good by nature, others by habituation, others by teaching'
- ἤθος, ethos with an η, denotes (good) character: 'We divided the virtues of the soul and said that some are virtues of character and others of intellect'.
And this is why we have joined ethos to the η. We want all our dealings—in how we think and write and speak and act—grounded and guided by good character and not just in keeping with habits or custom.
Of course, not all Greek philosophers considered rhetoric as dispassionately as Aristotle. Concerned with content instead of style, both Socrates and Plato were scathing in the criticisms they made of the discipline of rhetoric and of its professional teachers, the Sophists.