ENGL1010 Composition IAristotle identified three types of arguments (or appeals) which he called logos (rational arguments), pathos (emotional arguments), and ethos (ethical arguments). Of the three, rational arguments are most important, but often are not fully effective without an appeal to emotions (For instance, people may do things they "know" to be wrong (c.f., smoking) until they face some emotional crisis (c.f., bout with cancer). Ethical arguments are arguments of value and generally are not arguments which can effectively be made, but are arguments which the person making the argument is (the character of the person making the argument, his/her knowledge, professionalism, attitude of fairness, reason, emotional stability, passion, humility, and so on).
Too frequently, in our culture, arguments are based primarily on emotional appeals and fear tactics instead of carefully reasoned positions. A staple of the old Western is the image of a mob stirred to revenge by a single man, whose passions have raced ahead of his judgement. In those old movies, the hero saves the prisoner at the last moment, revealing the evidence that abolves the luckless young prisoner and exposes the true villain.
All good arguments are first founded on careful reasoning and evidence.
ENGL1010 Composition I