Week #2 Discussion #1

For as long as I can remember I have always been fascinated with how speech (not only words, but emphasis, placement and historical timing) have an effect on people and events and can spurn great upheavals or cause widespread merriment. I also knew that these great speakers knew exactly what their words were meant to do and had picked and chosen them carefully much like someone who would prepare their tools for a day of hard work. Knowing this and the great power speakers in history have wielded I further asked myself, "Has there ever been a speaker who has used the art of speech to advance society, culture and justice and, despite their clear and impending doom, used their words for the good of all and not for the good of their own neck?" After much thought and debate with friends, especially over whom we could truthfully and historically state was once a living man and had their ideology documented during or directly after their life (this was mainly to dis way my friends, many of whom are quite religious, to choose their adopted religion's mortal figure head), I and a few other came to the conclusion that Socrates was the man who perfectly fit the bill.
Socrates, who taught Plato and is considered to be the father of logic and ethics, used ethos and logos during his life long philosophical quest for truth, good and justice. Many of Socrates' arguments are based in logos as Socrates is considered to be the father of logic and the Socratic Method. Socrates' messages also attempted to promote ethos, not only within himself, but in his listeners as he believed, despite being defiant, being a good and honorable citizen was above all else. In Socrates' most famous oration, his statement before death to the people, jury and court of Athens, one can see pathos take hold within his final words. Rather than attempt to refute the claims of the State (that Socrates was willingly corrupting the minds of Athenian youth) he instead uses his final statement to passionately defend his chosen way of life, beliefs and actions and also makes a mockery of the entire trial itself (Socrates is said to have refused several escape attempts which had been assured success by the finances of his friends; Despite the court's willingness to subject Socrates to a punishment other than death [Socrates is believed to have concluded that death was a reward and not a punishment] he mocked the court by suggesting a better sentence then would be to have the government pay him a salary and provide free meals for the rest of his life due to his service to the people and state of Athens).
I believe my personal sense of logos and pathos are my greatest tools while waging speech. As I do not consider myself in any way to be the image of "American values and ideals" my ethos often suffers as many listeners will make a preliminary judgment based upon their conception of cultural and societal norms (though I have found that the opposite can be true depending on topic of speech and audience make-up). My sense of logos stems from years of reading, meeting strange people with even stranger ideas, traveling all over the Western Hemisphere and living outside the United States, never taking what the media promotes as truth and not being afraid to do, think or act in a way that others may view as "against the grain". Before the revolution there need to be revolutionaries...logos indeed.
My sense of pathos, I believe, is a mix of my cultural background and experiences with my father. I'm a jumbled mess of Cuban and Irish blood which, when mixed, cause a reaction similar to that of nitroglycerin in the right circumstances. My father, a civil attorney in Miami, FL who serves the poverty stricken Haitian community, also taught me that passion in the right cases can go a very long way. I watched many a time as my father turned the tide on a custody, property or will and final testament case with a passionate plea to the judge made in the name and interests of his clients.
I do believe that Aristotle's scheme can be used to categorize the qualities I believe make me a good speaker. Some things can be used in multiple spheres at the same time during speech but the classifications of ethos, pathos and logos still stand.