Everything about Ethos
Greek word meaning 'character'
Ethos is a Greek word meaning "custom" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence emotions, behaviors, and even morals. Early Greek stories of Orpheus exhibit this idea in a compelling way. The word's use in rhetoric is closely based on the Greek terminology used by Aristotle in his concept of the three artistic proofs or modes of persuasion alongside pathos and logos. It gives credit to the speaker, or the speaker is taking credit. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: EthosA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: ETHOS: a multi-label hate speech detection datasetInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Patterns in Shakespearian tragedyThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Scales for the measurement of ethosCited 453 times
- Go sideways: Poetics (Aristotle)A closely related topic
- Go sideways: Rhetoric (Aristotle)A closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun The character or fundamental values of a person, people, culture, or movement.
Noun A form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker invokes their authority, competence or expertise in an attempt to persuade others that their view is correct.
Noun The traits in a work of art which express the ideal or typic character, as influenced by the ethos (character or fundamental values) of a people, rather than emotional situations or individual character traits in a narrow sense; opposed to pathos.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Scales for the measurement of ethos
Ethos and credibility: The construct and its measurement after three decades
Fairness, Respect, and the Egalitarian Ethos
Reduced All-Cause Mortality in the ETHOS Trial of Budesonide/Glycopyrrolate/Formoterol for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. A Randomized, Double-Blind, Multicenter, Parallel-Group Study
Ethos,logos,pathos: Strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports
Ethos at stake: Performance management and academic work in universities
Varian ethos online adaptive radiotherapy for prostate cancer: Early results of contouring accuracy, treatment plan quality, and treatment time
ETHOS – an effective theory of structure formation: dark matter physics as a possible explanation of the small-scale CDM problems
🆕 Influential since 2022
ETHOS: a multi-label hate speech detection dataset
Sustainable consumption practices in Indian households: a saga of environment management linked to Indian ethos and generational differences
Assessment of efficacy in automated plan generation for Varian Ethos intelligent optimization engine
Declining prevalence of current HCV infection and increased treatment uptake among people who inject drugs: The ETHOS Engage study
Creating a public service topology: Mapping public service motivation, public service ethos, and public service values
📚 Books worth reading
Patterns in Shakespearian tragedyIrving Ribner · 1960
The love ethic of D.H. LawrenceMark Spilka · 1955
Herman MelvilleWilliam Ellery Sedgwick · 1944
The rhetorical world of Augustan humanismPaul Fussell · 1965
The moral theory of behaviorFrank R. Barta · 1952- 📕Das Ethos des Alten TestamentsHempel, Johannes · 1938
The prophetic voice in modern fictionWilliam Randolph Mueller · 1959
Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, Jacobean court preacherMaurice Francis Reidy · 1955
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Poetics (Aristotle) Aristotle's Poetics (Ancient Greek: Περὶ ποιητικῆς Peri poietikês; Latin: De Poetica; c. 335 BCE) is the earliest surviving work of Greek dramatic theory…
- Rhetoric (Aristotle) Aristotle's Rhetoric (Ancient Greek: Ῥητορική, romanized: Rhētorikḗ; Latin: Ars Rhetorica) is an ancient Greek treatise on the art of persuasion, dating…
- Rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse (trivium) of classical antiquity, along with grammar and logic/dialectic…
- Pathos Pathos is a Greek term referring to appeal to the emotions and ideals of the audience, eliciting feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is most often…
- Phronesis In ancient Greek philosophy, phronesis (Ancient Greek: φρόνησις, romanized: phrónēsis) refers to the type of wisdom or intelligence concerned with practical…
- Rhetorical stance Rhetorical stance refers to the deliberate choices made by a communicator in shaping and presenting their message. It encompasses the strategic decisions…
- Modes of persuasion The modes of persuasion, modes of appeal, or rhetorical appeals (Greek: pisteis) are the broadest classifications of rhetorical devices, which a persuasive…
- Classical rhetoric Classical rhetoric is the study and art of persuasive language as developed in classical antiquity: the ancient Greco-Roman world. In Europe, organized…