Pathos

Use in the book

Voices lamenting invented misfortunes can create real suffering in their speakers through a circuit of tongue, ear and mind. The successive formulations about wholly physical pathos then narrow their criticism to artists aiming only at coarse sensations. Pathos nevertheless remains one legitimate mode of persuasion, operating through emotion beside the demonstrative mode’s light. In comparing Rollin, Fénelon, Plato and Rousseau, the Greek term marks powerful emotional effect; Joubert expressly warns that the usual disparaging meaning of pathos is not intended there. The epos–ethos–pathos triad offers a more discriminating assessment: narration can be clear while the book’s displayed character is morose and its emotional effect acrid.

Places to read

1. I, p. 98, entry 12, ¶1Feigned misfortune can produce genuine suffering through vocal effect.
2. I, p. 457, entry 2, ¶1A revised formulation criticizes artists aiming only at coarse sensation.
3. II, p. 631, entry 1, ¶1The pathetic mode persuades through emotion.
4. II, p. 670, entry 11, ¶1Greek pathos identifies a powerful effect beside ethos.
5. II, p. 670, entry 11, ¶2The usual pejorative sense is explicitly excluded from that example.
6. II, p. 683, entry 2, ¶1Narrative, character and emotional effect receive separate judgments.

Translation in this edition

The English translation uses pathos, pathetic and appeal to emotion with their local distinctions. Pathetic does not mean pitiful in the technical rhetorical contrast. Greek ἦθος and πάθος remain Greek in the French witness; the English loans preserve their contrast. The abbreviation A. Rné and its history remain unidentified.