Rhetoric is the art of discourse that attempts to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. Though widely used in Western culture, the best known definition of rhetoric comes from Aristotle, who considers it a counterpart of both logic and politics, and calls it "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion." Using Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos rhetoric as heuristics for understanding, Elder Dallin H. Oaks calls for unity in protecting religious freedom.
Elder Oaks establishes ethos, or his authority as the keynote speaker in the beginning of his speech given at Chapman
University School of Law on February 4, 2011.
Being a former Justice of the Utah Supreme Court as well as a current
apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides validity among both political and
various religious leaders to call for religions’ former respected position
in our nation.
By relying on common
values to unify his audience, Oaks allows them to see how their shared fundamental values are greater than their differences in
religious doctrine.
