Ethos Rhetorical Criticism: Model Construction And Application

Ethos, one of the three persuasive means(the other two being logos and pathos) proposed by Aristotle, is a core concept of Western rhetoric. Rhetorical criticism, vibrant in contemporary rhetoric, is the systematic analysis of symbolic artifacts for the purpose of evaluating rhetorical strategies. Ethos rhetorical criticism has been explored in researches at home and abroad; however, many of them are based on the general understanding of ethos, resulting in vague or ambiguous interpretations.This paper aims at constructing a hierarchical system of ethos category, which is expected to be more operable and interpretive in both rhetorical criticism and rhetorical practice. The major theory to be applied in this study is Aristotle’s ethos and the development of this concept in the contemporary time. The justification of a new hierarchical ethos system is the focus of this inquiry. The thesis will mainly resolve the vagueness of Aristotle’s three elements of ethos: good sense, good moral character and goodwill, via extracting from the existing studies some basic subelements for each of them. To achieve this objective, the related chapters in Aristotle’s Rhetoric will be reexamined; interpretations of ethos by ancient and contemporary scholars will be investigated; and six passages from three genres will be analyzed for the testing of this hierarchical ethos model. By adopting the qualitative research method and its purposive sampling, this exploration arrives at the following major findings. Firstly, the elements and subelements we choose for this ethos model include almost all the important ethical factors: good sense(experience, expertise, authority), good moral character(justice, honesty, stateliness) and goodwill(understanding, empathy, responsiveness). Secondly, the vagueness of the components is reduced effectively in this new model so that ethos rhetorical criticism becomes more applicative and interpretive. Thirdly, the textual analyses demonstrate that some subelements of the model, such as “experience”, “expertise”, “stateliness”, “understanding” and “responsiveness”, are more frequently presented by the rhetors than others. Besides, the new model has proved to be capable of satisfying the ethical evaluation of many different text types including advertisements, prefaces, speeches, etc., which, on the other hand, has testified the effectiveness of the new ethos model.This study is expected to facilitate both rhetorical criticism and rhetorical practice, and to assist as well ethos’ further theoretical exploration. As it has taken into consideration the changing rhetorical situation, its findings may serve as a worthy reference for individuals, institutions, communities, and even nations to well establish desirable images in the present world.