Arguing With Aristotle 

Within Gaardner’s novel, Aristotle is seen as one of the big three philosophers who arguably set in motion modern western thought. Aristotle was hugely ahead of his time in ancient Greece, depicting philosophical thought such his “final cause” which would be the basis for future ideas that we still ponder to this day. In Sophie’s World, Aristotle is mentioned for his empiricist outlook as well as for the creation of ideas such as formal logic, which couldn't be closer to the truth about his accomplishments.

Another work that gives insight into Aristotle would be Everything’s an Argument, by Andrea Lunsford, John Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters.  The work goes to describe that, “…language is itself, inherently persuasive and hence that every text is also an argument that is designed to influence readers”(Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, Walters 4). As the authors go further into their claim (that everything is an argument), they discuss different ways in which people argue. Aristotle made claims on a number of various topics throughout his philosophical career, one of which being spoken word/debate. In the Classical era, public speech events were huge, ushering waves of people to watch two well-cultured individuals debate a particular topic. Ancient Rome and Greece had argumentative thinkers whom devoted their careers to debate, and these places can arguably be named one of the birthplaces of modern public speech. 

In Gaardner’s work, Aristotle is credited for his study of changes and his focus on evidence as an empiricist. This can also be attributed to Aristotle’s work on public speech, where he, “…identified three key ways that writers can appeal to their audiences in arguments…pathos, ethos, and logos”(Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, Walters 34). In Everything’s an Argument, Aristotle took notice of such changes to a person’s opinion on an argument based on how the argument appealed to them. As described in Gaardner’s work, Aristotle then uses evidence based upon this idea to devise emotional, ethical, and logical appeals. Emotional, or Pathos, consisted of argumentation which included generation of emotions for the reader, making the piece’s impact stronger, such as seeing a child in need on a commercial for a charity. Ethical, or Ethos arguments include the idea of self presentation. Aristotle believed that people would take an argument more seriously if it seemed credible, or sided with their beliefs. Lastly, Logical, or Logos appeals involve the use of facts or statistics to persuade people to your side.

Ultimately, both novels cross over the philosophical ideas which people hold up to Aristotle, containing his empiricist thought process as well as logical ideas.

Works Cited

Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, Walters. Andrea, John, Keith.  Everything’s an Argument. Bedford: St. Martin’s, 2006. Print.