Ethos And Logos In Dr. King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

When persuading someone or a large group the persuader will use three basic methods: ethos, pathos, logos. In Dr. King’s letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” he used all three methods to persuade his fellow clergymen and the white moderate. The three basic foundations of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos are also known as credibility, emotion, and logic; however, only one method stood out from the others and goaded Dr. King’s agenda/objective to his audience. The method ethos for credible appeal was used by Dr. King in his letter. Ethos is directed towards those who discern a person’s credibility as the most influential degree of their stance. “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state” (Dr. King 7). In the quote, Dr. King states his position in a large organization that is in every southern state which founded his credibility. His position would’ve opened the clergymen and churchgoers up to listen to his words. After the quote strongly founded Dr. King’s credibility he went on to strengthen it. “Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal” (Dr. …show more content…
King three methods of persuasion; ethos, pathos, and logos also known as the Aristotelian method of persuasion were used to influence the clergymen and white moderate in Birmingham and everywhere else in the United States. By using all three methods, Dr. King was able to appeal to everyone and persuaded them that segregation was immoral; however, out of all the methods, only one was the most effective. Pathos was the most effective method because anyone and everyone can feel emotional connections and those connections can be manipulated to persuade them into the persuader’s favor, which Dr. King