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Everything about Pathos

Greek rhetorical term for appeals to emotion

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 used in rhetoric, in which it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and logos. It is also used as in literature, film, and other narrative art. Wikipedia →

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: PathosA 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: Carillion's strategic choices and the boardroom's strategies of persuasive appeals: ethos, logos and pathosInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: КаштанкаThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: PATHOS: a phase II/III trial of risk-stratified, reduced intensity adjuvant treatment in patients undergoing transoral surgery for Human papillomavirus (HPV) positive oropharyngeal cancerCited 251 times
  5. Go sideways: Rhetoric (Aristotle)A closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: Modes of persuasionA closely related topic

📖 Definitions

Noun The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.

Noun A form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker uses emotional appeals to the audience as the main form of persuasion.

Noun An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.

Noun In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. Methods
  2. Philosophy
  3. Rhetoric
  4. External links[2]

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

🆕 Influential since 2022

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics