Rhetoric - Aristotle: A dangerous way of communicating that moves people
//Summary -Level-C2//
Aristotle's work on rhetoric offers timeless insights into the art of persuasion relevant to public speakers, managers and job seekers alike. The text identifies three core elements for effective influence: the speaker's credibility, the listener's emotional state, and the argument's logical soundness. Credibility is built by demonstrating thoughtfulness, virtue and goodwill. Emotional manipulation can be achieved by understanding and evoking feelings such as anger, fear and pity in the audience. Finally, logical persuasion requires strong evidence supported by specific facts, authoritative endorsements and the use of the audience's previous statements. The principles are theoretical and practical tools for improving communication and influence.
1)
Today, I would like to introduce you to the rhetorical techniques of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
It is a classical masterpiece that explains the secrets of speaking in a way that attracts people and conveys a message convincingly.
Especially for those who have many opportunities to speak and debate in public, those who are not good at expressing their thoughts and ideas, those who are looking for a job, or those who are in a position to influence people as a manager or boss, this is a book you should pick up.
2)
Aristotle is one of the greatest Western philosophers, Socrates and Plato.
He is also known as the father of all sciences because he laid the foundations for many disciplines, such as science, ethics and politics.
In ancient Greece, where he lived, speaking engagingly and conveying information persuasively was considered a sign of an excellent leader. It was considered important enough to determine one's life.
So it seems that people at that time were jumping on the books on rhetoric that were on the market and reading them to their heart's content, and Aristotle took a negative view of this, saying that there was no point in reading such fake books.
3)
Moreover, he wrote this book as an antithesis to the conventional method, with the idea that he would teach a more essential and practical way of authentic rhetoric.
However, when we read it, the writing is quite tricky and not easy to understand, but please rest assured that there are no complex words or expressions in this video.
4)
I will begin this video by giving you an overview of Aristotle's Rhetoric.
Normally, I would spend the first half of the video giving you some background information on the work, but since this is a technical topic, I'll get straight to the point.
Specifically, we will cover the following three topics: the three main elements that determine the ability of rhetorical techniques to convey content, plans to move emotions and move people, and how to create evidence to increase persuasiveness.
Learning rhetoric is something we take for granted in Europe and America. Still, there aren't many opportunities in Japan, so I hope many people will take advantage of this opportunity and become interested.
5)
First, let's look at the first topic, the three main elements determining communication ability.
Oratory is the art of persuading others on any subject.
In other words, it is effective in a specific field and can be used in all situations.
Three main elements are essential in persuading people through the power of words.
The first is the person's personality, the second is the mood of the person listening, and the third is the correctness of what is being said.
6)
Rhetoric is the art of persuading people, and persuasion involves three elements: the personality of the person speaking, the mood of the person listening, and the correctness of the story's content.
In other words, it is not enough,h no matter how good the story is.
The personality of the person speaking is essential, and the emotions and ups and downs of the other person's mood are also crucial factors in persuasion.
7)
Now, let's look at the first aspect of persuasion, the speaker's personality.
This boils down to the importance of the credibility of the person speaking.
For example, if a doctor who specialises in lifestyle diseases advises you to lose weight in a doctor's surgery, it will carry more weight than if a friend who is not thin enough gives you a hint at a drinking party.
In addition, advice from someone who has consistently achieved results or is a professional in the field is more persuasive than advice from someone who has not had good results at work or in sports, and people are more likely to follow their words.
8)
In other words, we can say from this that gaining the other person's trust is essential before telling them anything.
No, I don't have any outstanding talents or complex national qualifications, so it may be impossible for people to trust me.
Don't worry, those people are OK too.
Even if you don't have those special qualifications, there is a secret to gaining the trust of your audience.
9)
It means being wise and having virtue. All you have to do is show your audience these three things: you have goodwill towards them.
Let them see that you are a thoughtful, virtuous person who loves them.
I will now explain in detail how to do this.
10)
First, let's talk about being considerate.
This means appropriately distinguishing between good and evil, considering the other person's happiness.
If you apply this to sales, for example, thinking only about the merits of your company's products and selling what you want to sell is thoughtless selling.
On the other hand, a thoughtful person can see what kind of happy state a customer is looking for and decide between a good proposal and a lousy proposal to implement it. It's a business.
In other words, a prudent person is not self-righteous and can think about right and wrong, keeping in mind the happiness of others.
11)
The second point is about having virtue.
In this case, imagine that virtue is necessary to be a good person.
Specifically, Aristotle said that a person is virtuous if he possesses these seven qualities: justice, courage, temperance, generosity, greatness, "being calm and not afraid of anything," and prudence.
In summary, people should think about things fairly according to laws and rules, withstand crises and difficulties, not give in to pleasure, help others financially, and have a spirit of constant giving. According to Aristotle, a virtuous person is willing to spend a lot of money and can judge right and wrong based on the happiness of others.
12)
Also, I mentioned earlier that being thoughtful is the first point to gain trust, but please note that these seven points also include being thoughtful.
In other words, thoughtfulness is an important word for this book and an indispensable element in learning the art of rhetoric.
Of course, this is not to say that the seven points I have just listed must all be fulfilled.
These virtues are like cards; you can be flexible in choosing the most appropriate card for the situation.
13)
Suppose you are the president of a company. In a situation where significant investments are required from everyone's point of view, "being calm and not afraid of anything" is needed rather than temperance, a required etude of willingness to spend money.
Similarly, in situations of crisis or hardship, we must show courage rather than generosity.
In this way, a person who carefully assesses the time and the situation and plays the right cards will be respected by those around him as a person of virtue and, as a result, will be more likely to be listened to.
14)
And the third and final point is to be kind to your listeners.
In short, this means letting the other person know that you like them.
No matter how great your conversation is, it's pointless if the other person is suspicious of you.
To prevent this from happening, you first need to let your guard down and show friendliness by telling the other person, "I'm your ally, not your enemy."
15)
Imagine, for example, a job interview.
Whether it's a lie or not, if you don't show that your company is my first choice and that you are interested in the company, you will be rejected in most cases.
This is because if you can't convey your feelings of love to the other person, no matter what you say, it won't be convincing, and you'll wonder if this person will work hard at your company, and you'll end up quitting soon because you won't find it rewarding. This is because they may doubt your desire to join the company.
This applies to all relationships, such as superiors and subordinates, teachers and students, and parents and children.
16)
For this person's words to be perceived as trustworthy, worth listening to, and worthy of obedience, your goodwill must be conveyed to the other person.
However, expressing my feelings directly to someone is difficult by saying I love you.
So, I will introduce two techniques for communicating this to others naturally.
17)
In other words, if the other person is happy, you should be pleased with them; if the other person is sad, you should be unhappy with them and be as close as possible to the feelings of the person in front of you.
In this way, your feelings will naturally be communicated to each other, even if you don't have to say that you like them directly.
18)
The second step is to relate the other person's values to your own.
For example, you want to be in the state you wish to, and the things you fear or dislike the most are the same for me.
This allows the person in front of you to let down their guard and be willing to accept what you are saying, not just as someone else's words but as the words of a friend.
19)
We have just completed the first topic.
We will move on to the second topic, techniques for moving people by moving their emotions.
20)
The second factor involved in persuasion is the mood of the other person. As humans, how we perceive things changes according to our philosophy.
When people love, when they hate, when they're angry and when they're calm, just one emotion can make things that are not the same.
What would you do if the person about to be sentenced was someone you loved?
You'd feel like defending them, saying they didn't do anything wrong or their crimes weren't serious.
However, the picture appears to be the opposite in the eyes of people who harbour hatred.
Anger, pity, fear, these emotions change people's feelings and their judgements change.
21)
In short, the possibility of getting the other person to say yes depends on the other person's emotions, so be careful.
It is true that if you speak logically, you will never be able to convince people.
No matter how impeccable your proposal or idea may be, it may be rejected simply because the other person is in a bad mood.
On the other hand, even if it's an outrageous request that doesn't work, the other person may be in a good mood and accept it.
22)
In other words, to persuade people, you need to understand human psychology well.
This book examines the mechanisms of various emotions in detail, but this time, I will focus on three emotions: anger, fear and pity.
Especially in modern society, psychological guidance using these emotions is ubiquitous, so please pay attention to this point.
23)
Let's talk about anger first.
In this book, Aristotle defines anger as follows.
Anger is the painful desire to take revenge for blatant disrespect to oneself or one's group; imagine being insulted or abused.
Such acts make us angry.
24)
So, what happens when we use this as a rhetorical technique?
It may sound bad, but by instilling anger in the other person, you can make them behave in a way that suits you.
For example, let's say that a country has been ignoring and insulting our nation for many years.
Let us also say that our competitor, Company A, constantly breaks the rules and slanders our company.
By stirring up public anger, they can create enemies and control the group to their advantage.
There is a lot of anger, especially in the world of television and the Internet, so we need to be careful about things that are inflammatory to the masses.
25)
Secondly, in this book, Aristotle defines fear as follows:
It is a pain or mental disturbance caused by the imagination of impending destruction or evil that will cause pain.
Please note the part that says "it is about to happen".
In other words, images of destruction and suffering that are not in the distant future but are about to happen create fear in people.
So, how can we use the emotion of fear as a rhetorical technique?
26)
In short, you must create a crisis and persuade the other party.
However, there are two things to remember when using this technique.
The first is to emphasise that a tragedy is imminent.
As I mentioned, to make the other person feel a sense of crisis, you must make them imagine that destruction and pain are imminent.
People don't take things in the distant future, like 10 or 20 years from now, as personal.
Therefore, it is essential to emphasise that the tragedy is coming as soon as possible, for example, this year or next month.
27)
And the second thing is that it leaves a little bit of hope.
In other words, when you create a sense of crisis. There is a principle that you should never let the other person despair.
This is because when people are faced with despair, they tend to stop taking action and choose to give up.
To prevent this, it is essential to create fear while at the same time offering hope of salvation.
28)
For example, the worst-case scenario awaits us if things continue, but there is still time.
It is possible to turn this crisis into an opportunity and achieve a remarkable turnaround.
By combining fear and hope with the idea that we must do it now, we can push human behaviour more strongly in a specific direction.
29)
Now, let's look at the third and final emotion: pity.
In this book, Aristotle talks about pity as follows:
Pity is the pain you feel when you see someone in misery or pain that leads to destruction.
However, the people we feel pity for are those who are close to us in terms of age, personality, social status and family status.
This is because the misfortunes of people close to us strongly affect us, making us feel that it could happen to us at any moment.
30)
Indeed, people tend to feel sorry for the misfortunes of those close to them.
The idea that the same misfortune could happen to him made him feel a strong sense of pity.
In speeches, people often refer to their misfortunes to elicit sympathy, make their point, ask for support, or encourage specific action.
However, it is not just a matter of recounting unfortunate episodes; the key is to make the listener feel that tomorrow will be their own.
31)
This is an extreme example, but even if a person with 10 billion yen in assets talks passionately about his unhappiness to someone in financial trouble, it would not be easy to get sympathy from him.
So, if you use this technique, you have to make sure that you are not mistaken about the person you are trying to get sympathy from and that you appeal to the other person to understand that they are human beings who live in the same world as you. That's the point.
32)
We have just finished the second topic.
I want to move on to the third and final theme, which is how to create evidence to increase persuasiveness.
33)
The third element of persuasion is the correctness of what you say.
If you want to persuade someone with words, the content of your speech must be logical and make sense.
There are two ways of doing this: illustration and persuasive reasoning. However, when it comes to winning public approval, apparent reason wins.
34)
There seem to be two ways of speaking logically: illustration and persuasive reasoning.
However, Aristotle emphasises the latter, so I want to focus on persuasive reasoning in this video.
Persuasive reasoning concludes that "this is probably the case'' based on solid evidence.
35)
For example, he is the fastest in this school. Therefore, he will be the best at the upcoming sports day.
So, from A to B, the primary form of persuasive reasoning is to present solid evidence.
In other words, the more substantial the evidence for A, the more convincing B will be. The key to successful persuasion is, therefore, the strength of the evidence.
The book gives a long list of ways to strengthen your evidence, but I will present three that are particularly practical and can be used immediately in this video.
36)
The first step is to gather specific facts about the topic.
For example, what would you do if someone you didn't know told you that this film was fascinating and that you should go and see it?
I don't think I'd ever feel like going to see it.
This is because the basis for the argument that people want to see the film is weak and lacks persuasiveness.
37)
That is why Aristotle recommended in his book to collect a lot of concrete facts that are deeply related to the topic you want to argue.
In other words, in the case of the film mentioned earlier, it could be that the person you are recommending has their favourite actor in it, that it has won an Oscar, that it has been number one in the cinema charts for several weeks. It is based on undeniable facts.
When people see something extraordinary, they want to use their emotions to tell them it's excellent. Still, that argument only makes sense to people with whom they already have a relationship.
Suppose you want to communicate something to someone you don't know, such as an interviewer at a client company. If you're meeting for the first time or an unspecified number of internet users, it's a golden rule to back it up with concrete facts related to the topic.
38)
The second is to strengthen the base with traction.
No matter how much evidence you provide, it's not easy to sell or make a point and get the other party to understand if you don't have enough trust from them.
However, in such cases, borrowing someone else's story can reinforce your seriousness, persuade the other person or encourage them to take a particular action.
This technique is often used as a marketing method, and many companies use it to promote their products.
39)
For example, when you see a product on another company's website or in an advertisement, you will see recommendations from experts such as famous doctors and university professors, media coverage, and even world-renowned scientific journals. Have you ever seen material used to support evidence, such as data on something?
Also, suppose you are in a managerial position. In that case, you may have relied on authority within the company when giving instructions to your subordinates, telling them that this is an order from the president and that they should act immediately.
In this way, it is a standard method, unchanged since ancient times, to attach authority to the basis for urging someone to do something or love you in a certain way.
40)
The third and final point is to base your argument on the other person's words and actions.
In other words, it's like saying, "You've said that before, haven't you?" referring to the other person's words or behaviour to get to the point you want to make.
If you do this, the other person will have no way of denying it because it is their own words and actions, and it will be easier to get them to say something convincing that it is true.
It is also said that humans have a psychology called the principle of consistency, where they want their actions, statements, attitudes, beliefs, etc., to be always consistent.
41)
However, as we all know, humans are not machines, and we can't always behave consistently.
Therefore, in this book, Aristotle showed a method to take advantage of this inconvenient human psychology, to exploit the opponent's contradictions and defeat the argument.
This method is still used in many situations today.
A typical example is a job interview.
The recruiter can check for consistency between the candidate's application form and what they say during the interview and can think logically and argue their case to see if the candidate is serious about joining the company. They check these things to know if it's a person.
42)
In addition, basing your information on the other person's words and actions has become standard in the sales world.
For example, have you ever found that the more you talk to a salesperson in an electronics or clothing store, the more natural it is to buy something, or the harder it is for you to say no?
In a natural conversation, people talk about their needs, such as what they want, the black colour and the price.
43)
The salesperson then narrows the options based on these words and suggests, "This is the product that is perfect for you.''
As a result, the principle of consistency I mentioned earlier kicks in. I'm put into a psychological state where I realise this is the product I've been looking for. Before I know it, I'm standing in front of the cash register with my wallet open.
44)
I have just finished the third.
There was a lot of content so I will summarise it at the end.
45)
To make your message persuasive, there are three key points to consider: the personality of the person speaking, the mood of the person listening, and the correctness of what is being said.
Firstly, to gain confidence in your personality, show that you are thoughtful, virtuous and have goodwill towards your audience.
Secondly, to take advantage of the mood of crisis and persuade others, you need to be familiar with human psychology.
To create anger, emphasise that you are being disrespected. To inspire fear, speak of impending tragedy and offer a glimmer of hope.
The key to eliciting pity is to create an image of a close relationship between you and the other person.
Thirdly, to strengthen the validity of your words, try to maintain the evidence to support your argument.
To do this, gather specific facts related to the issue and use traction to solidify your basis.
Also, use the other person's past statements and actions as evidence.
46)
I think these are all content that you can try right away.
Why not try to put them into practice in your work or daily life from today?
This is more than Aristotle's rhetoric.
It is a very persuasive work that has been read for over 2,000 years.
Rhetoric - Aristotle: A dangerous way of communicating that moves people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izam8-8MPx0&t=379s
