As we grow older, we realize that not many things in life are timeless, but rather fads. That t-shirt that was all the rage in high school, or that band that was always on the radio. Trends come and go, but ethos pathos logos are here to stay. Aristotle's three artistic proofs are what many like to call timeless. Every great speech in history has had these three artistic proofs in one way or another. Aristotle created these proofs in ancient Greece and today, in 2018, they are simply relevant and have become the backbone of what it means to create timeless speech. The three artistic tests are often found in advertisements that try to convince mass audiences to buy this or not to do that. While they may work well in advertising, they are more effective in the political sphere. “Politics is often defined as the art of governing; in this sense, the central purpose of political interaction can be defined as persuasion” (Demirdogen, 2010). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay We will look at President Barack Obama's September 10, 2013 speech and explain how he used these three artistic proofs and how Aristotle's artistic proofs are still a timeless way to create an argument and write a speech. Before ethos, pathos, and logos can be compared to contemporary times, we must first understand where they come from. In ancient Greece Aristotle provided the three artistic proofs. These proofs fall within the canon of Invention, one of the five different canons of rhetoric. The canon of invention “divided invention into three areas: stasis, problem finding; proof, support for claims; and topoi, common topics that rhetoric can evoke in different situations. ” (Borchers, 2018). Aristotle believed that there were two different types of proof: artistic proof and inartistic proof. Inartistic proofs are proofs understood only by the rhetorician. These are uncontrollable factual appeals. Inartistic evidence ranges from laws and contracts to testimony. The second type of proof, the one that interested Aristotle the most, was the artistic proof: ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos is the first of Aristotle's artistic proofs and uses the idea that to be a persuasive speaker you must be credible. speaker. To be a credible speaker, you must have good character, speak ethically, possess common sense, and care about your audience. If the audience perceives these things, they will know that the speaker is sincere and that what he is saying is reliable, allowing him to be better persuaded. Essentially the speaker must demonstrate that he or she is qualified to speak on a particular topic. Three qualities are needed: “practical wisdom [phronesis], virtue [arete], and good will [eunoia]” (Borchers 2018). If Kim Kardashian gave a speech about how the US federal government should fundamentally change its nuclear weapons strategy, her credibility as a speaker would be very low because her wisdom [phronesis] would be in question. If he gave a speech about social media and the importance of it, his credibility would be much higher. Logos is the second of Aristotle's artistic proofs and uses the idea that to be a persuasive speaker you must support your argument with strong evidence and reasoning. To effectively support your argument, you must have a logical and rational argument, clearly supported by strong evidence and adequate reasoning. If the audience sees evidence to support your claim, they will likely be convinced of the validity of your claims. Logos is the appeal to the intellect orto reason. “For Aristotle, logos is rational, logical and argumentative discourse. ” (Mschvenieradze, 2013) Aristotle believed that there were two ways of presenting logos, with induction or deduction reasoning. Inductive reasoning then uses model examples to generalize to find an answer. Deductive reasoning involves taking a set of data or facts and using them to obtain other facts that you know to be true. When you generalize, you don't necessarily know that the trend will continue, but you assume that it will. With deductive reasoning you know it will be true. You are starting with facts and deducing other facts from those facts. When you use deductive reasoning, you rely on enthymemes, a type of syllogism. A syllogism is a series of three statements that go from generalization to particular case and finally to conclusion. (Borchers, 2018). Finally, the third artistic test is pathos. Pathos is the appeal to emotion and tone of speech or writing. When using ethos, the speaker must understand their audience. Aristotle believed that it was impossible to connect emotionally with the audience. The speaker must understand the emotions of the audience to convince them. Pathos in contemporary times has become the main driving force in speeches. Our current president, having no history in politics, will use ethics quite frequently. In his inaugural speech, he uses pathos to attract the audience. “We will get our people off welfare and back to work. We will follow two simple rules: we will buy American and we will hire American. ” (Trump, 2016). The art of persuasion has been reduced to the sole use of pathos. By addressing emotions rather than intelligence, pathos has become the means and end of political speeches. (Wrobel, 2015). Although the three artistic tests have not changed, the uses have changed. Political and persuasive speeches have relied on pathos rather than all three tests. We have people on the Internet who use emotions as the only way to persuade their audiences. Websites like Infowars will use a tragic event like the Sandyhook shooting and claim it was a conspiracy just to get a few more clicks on their website. Although some politicians don't use all three pieces of evidence when building an argument, great speakers continue to use artistic evidence ethos pathos and logos. Case in point would be former President Barack Obama's speech to the people and the United States Congress regarding the chemical attacks in Syria in 2013. President Obama uses the ethos pathos and logos to convince Congress and the American people that an attack on the Syrian government is the best plan. of action. There are two types of ethics, preliminary ethics and discourse ethics. “Preliminary ethics is what the audience knows about the speaker, his authority, education about marital status.” President Obama clearly asserts his authority in his speech. “This is my judgment as commander in chief. But I am also the president of the oldest constitutional democracy in the world” (Obama, 2013). His wisdom, virtue and good will are never questioned. Discourse ethics is “the ethics created immediately for the specific situation and during the speech. " (Mshvenieradze, 2013). In this speech, he could be speaking in a presidential speech. This formal manifestation of President Obama gives him ethics before he speaks. “Pathos is directly connected to the audience” (Mshvenieradze, 2013) , and President Obama knew it as he spoke. During his address to the nation, he paints a horrific picture of bodies lying in rows killed by Sarin gas. Fathers hold their children begging them to move he saw, 26(2), 137-152.