Aristotle On The Rhetoric Of “Pathos-Driven Politics”

Politics is a world replete with emotions and our age is characterized by“Pathos-driven Politics ”.Emotions may affect politics positively and negatively,making the society amicable and cohesive or conflicting and fragmented.With the advent of “The Age of the Crowd” and “Post-Truth Era”,emotions in the social life play a more prominent role.An “affective/emotional turn” is currently sweeping across public sphere as well as the academia in the West.In many cases,emotional appeal plays a larger role in shaping public opinions than appeal to “facts” and has been frequently utilized by many politicians,which is indicative of the advent of an “emotional age”.Meanwhile,the current global geopolitical situation is increasingly affected by emotions.While“emotionally-charged conflicts” are gaining prominence,it also takes more emotionally informed communication in order to build up a “global community” and resolve the conflicts.Emotion has become an important perspective from which to gain an insight into politics and a hot topic under study.Aristotle is the first western scholar to subject emotions to a systematic study from the perspective of politics.In his opinion,humans are political animals by nature,which means that human relationships,including emotional relationship,must be political deep down.Aristotle also discusses the impact of emotional persuasion on political development from rhetorical perspective.Finding a union of politics,emotion/ethics,and rhetoric,he makes an in-depth analysis of their interrelationships.This dissertation attempts to investigate the theory of “Pathos-driven Politics” by Aristotle from a rhetorical perspective,with special attention to political and persuasive functions performed by emotion.It makes an inquiry into the historical evolution of the theory,studies the rhetorical strategy employed by political figures to establish “identity”or create “division” in politics as well as dissects its use in rhetorical practice so as to deepen our understanding of theory.Aristotle does not set reason and emotion against each other,holding that they can complement each other and collaborate so that one can make deliberate choices and achieve justice and virtue.As Nussbaum points out,for Aristotle,emotional intellect makes the choice more flexible and human,… only the reason penetrated with emotions possesses real life force.With an analysis of the political and rhetorical implications of emotions in Aristotle’s On Rhetoric,we find further that emotions may affect the stability and policy-making in the polis,either adding cohesion or causing division.Aristotle also probes into generative mechanism of emotions and the ways to achieve mutual transformation or check of distinct emotions and political goals more effectively.Some important concepts of the theory are subject to rethinking and reinterpretation in the later historical phases,demonstrating their enduring viability and universal applicability.Eg.Aristotle emphasizes the importance of “bringing-before-the-eyes” and“timing” in terms of emotional appeal so as to touch the hearts of audience more effectively.These notions are still of great significance at present.Aristotle also repeatedly highlights the significance of “common ground” between speaker and audience,constructed or real.Eg.In On Rhetoric,he mentions twice that it is not difficult to praise Athenians in Athens;but among the Spartans it is another matter.(Rhet.1367b5&1415b30-31).He also says that common fear brings together even the worst enemies(Pol.1304b23).These notions bear intimate relationship with the concept of“Identification” of New Rhetoric theory.We also observe that the key concepts of New Rhetoric all convey a strong psychological undertone,indicating to some extent that emotions have become a key concern of rhetoric and identification is essentially an emotional one.Freud once pointed out their interconnection explicitly: “Identification is known to psycho-analysis as the earliest expression of an emotional tie with another person”.The study also analyzes the emotional rhetoric in American political practice so as to add to our understanding of the role emotions have been playing in the manipulating of political power.The American political landscape is characterized by a tendency of emotional polarization.Emotion has become a powerful political tool for political figures as well as a weapon to fight for their rights among the masses.The theory can also provide some insights for China’s foreign-oriented communication.E.g.it’s necessary to know the emotional duality in the cross-cultural communication and counteract the emotional attack with emotions skillfully.Importance should also be attached to conveying the official positions from perspectives of common people and humanistic concern,appropriating the authority from the side of interlocutors to appeal to the collective emotions and convictions to the audience so as to establish identification and win support of public opinion rather than devoting all efforts to persuading the opponents.Efforts should be made to achieve the mutual stimulation and promotion between“Consensus” and “Empathy”.It is hoped that the study would add a new perspective from which to better understand the fundamental mechanism of Western rhetoric,expand the knowledge of emotional rhetoric in general,improve China’s competence in engaging the West rhetorically,especially its capability in conducting foreign-oriented communication and promote academic research in China on the role and impact of emotional rhetoric in political life.