Aristotle and Enthymemes

In Chapter 21, we learn about Aristotle and his idea of rhetoric. He described rhetoric as "discovering all the available means of persuasion." By this, he meant that we use rhetoric as a way to make the truth more probable when speaking in front of audiences. Examples of this could be the presidential speeches, or lawyers defending cases in courtrooms. Aristotle went further and described the three proofs that a speaker must achieve the logos, pathos, or ethos is what the speaker must use in order to reveal the speaker's character. I liked how the author used Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous speech "I have a dream" because it is a very good example of what Aristotle was trying to convey in his writings. Although there were certain parts of the speech that he may have not been successful in fulfilling one part of the proofs, he would use one of the others in order to make up what was missing from the other ones. An example of this when a speaker uses an enthymeme, or leaving out an obvious premise because it is already accepted by the audience. Aristotle says that if you use the enthymeme, it is important that you know your audience well and that a specific idea is already accepted by them. Therefore, if Martin Luther King, Jr. were to go to an predominantly white audience and gave the same speech to them, the powerful words that he used that moved members of a black audience would be lost. I have seen some speakers use certain words, phrases, even jokes that don't move the audience at all, because the speaker did not take the time to properly analyze the audience. To fully capture the audience with your speech, you must be able to analyze them and recognize what is important to them, otherwise you are just wasting your time and your words.