Rhetoric and Poetics: Persuasion and Tragedy

Aristotle also analyzed the arts of speech and drama. Unlike Plato, who distrusted rhetoric, Aristotle treated it as a legitimate skill: the ability to see the available means of persuasion in any case. He identified three: ethos, persuasion through the speaker's character and credibility; pathos, through the emotions of the audience; and logos, through reasoning and evidence. In the Poetics he examined tragedy, defending poetry against Plato's criticism.

Tragedy, he argued, imitates (mimesis) a serious action, and through pity and fear it brings about catharsis, a cleansing or clarification of these emotions. The best plots involve a reversal of fortune and a recognition, and the tragic hero falls through hamartia, an error or flaw, rather than pure wickedness. A second book of the Poetics, on comedy, is lost. Both works remain foundational in literature, writing and communication courses.