During World War II, and the time surrounding it’s closing, many people worked to educate citizens about the dangers of fascism and propaganda. Others worked to prevent something like that from ever happening again. In a collection of lectures, C.S. Lewis one of these intellectuals, attempted to warn us of the dangers of avoiding emotion and lacking philosophical knowledge in future generations. Lewis states that it is these characteristics that allow people to be susceptible to fascist propaganda and emotionless violence, which lead to WWII and could, as Lewis describes, lead to “The Abolition of Man” as we know it. To persuade the people of the time Lewis uses Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to show his audience that these are problems that need
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Pathos can be described as an appeal to emotion. Pathos not only persuades using emotional responses but is used to sway people’s views in a way that cannot be achieved by either logos or pathos. There is no logic involved in pathos and leaves the audience with no reason to reject the opinion in front of them. Lewis uses Pathos in “The Abolition of Man” a bit differently than others would in a persuasive work. Lewis will provide an argument with lots of appeals to logos, and then reinforce that argument with a portion of emotional appeal. An example of this would be at the end of the first portion of the lectures Lewis explains that “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings fruitful” (26). This passage of text comes after Lewis explains how the education system has created the “men without chests” and provides the emotions of regret and remorse to persuade the audience. He make the audience feel regret with the statement “we remove the organ and expect the function”. Here Lewis is trying to make the audience understand that these things happening around us our products of our own doing and education system. Then Lewis brings in the remorse by trying to make the audience feel sorry and want to atone for their philosophic ignorance with phrases like “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise” and “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst”. At the end of the passage Lewis uses one short sentence to embed his point of view in the audience. The last sentence in Lewis’ first lecture is “We castrate and bid the geldings fruitful”. This Lewis’ final appeal to emotion really shows the audience their wrongs and makes them want to make a change for the future. In similar
Pathos can be described as an appeal to emotion. Pathos not only persuades using emotional responses but is used to sway people’s views in a way that cannot be achieved by either logos or pathos. There is no logic involved in pathos and leaves the audience with no reason to reject the opinion in front of them. Lewis uses Pathos in “The Abolition of Man” a bit differently than others would in a persuasive work. Lewis will provide an argument with lots of appeals to logos, and then reinforce that argument with a portion of emotional appeal. An example of this would be at the end of the first portion of the lectures Lewis explains that “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings fruitful” (26). This passage of text comes after Lewis explains how the education system has created the “men without chests” and provides the emotions of regret and remorse to persuade the audience. He make the audience feel regret with the statement “we remove the organ and expect the function”. Here Lewis is trying to make the audience understand that these things happening around us our products of our own doing and education system. Then Lewis brings in the remorse by trying to make the audience feel sorry and want to atone for their philosophic ignorance with phrases like “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise” and “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst”. At the end of the passage Lewis uses one short sentence to embed his point of view in the audience. The last sentence in Lewis’ first lecture is “We castrate and bid the geldings fruitful”. This Lewis’ final appeal to emotion really shows the audience their wrongs and makes them want to make a change for the future. In similar