Blog #1

When discussing the art of rhetoric, or how I like to call it; the art of persuasion, one key factor I like to focus on is logos. Logos, as discussed by famous philosopher Aristotle, is the proof of reasoning. It is thus broken into two parts which are artistic and inartistic. Let us discuss first part, which happens to be my personal favorite, inartistic. Inartistic reasoning is fact-based reasoning. Another way of putting it is that it is indisputable. So, when bringing this concept into the Central Park Five, would be the metal pipe. It is scientific evidence that is not plausible. It was used to beat the male jogger and there is no question about it. Now, in Central Park Five there is also several other instances of inartistic reasoning. One, is who was the victim, which was Trisha Meili. Now let’s explore where we being to see some “plausible” or artistic reasoning. When the five gentlemen were arrested, there was no evidence connecting them to the rape/beating. Although it can be argued about the confession. However, the flaws in that are the facts about what Trisha was wearing, how was she beaten etc. The police officers, unfortunately, failed to put two and two together. The pure facts (inartistic reasoning), were not lining up with the statements. In the documentary, the logos elements are queued with specific music to draw on the effectiveness as well as the drama that ensures. For instance, when the film was going over New York in the 1980’s, photos of the city in shambles were spread throughout the screen followed by a very strong dialogue and music that instantly indicated both sadness and frustration. It is amazing to see just what little details such as music can have in terms of impact to the viewers. For instance, when that music hits, the mood of an individual such as myself lowers, I became more intrigued with what was being said, how it was being said and what the overall picture was. It brings to attention the topic of symbolism as well as the first part of rhetoric, invention. From the various ques such as music and pictures (which acts as symbols), when there is dictation from a speaker, influence is not only gained, by emotion is also expressed from the audience. This is important because according to Aristotle, the speaker is achieving two of the three divides of invention.