Question

Read the following passage:

But does everyone on earth have an equal right to an equal share of its resources? The spaceship metaphor can be dangerous when used by misguided idealists to justify suicidal policies for sharing our resources through uncontrolled immigration and foreign aid.In their enthusiastic but unrealistic generosity, they confuse the ethics of a spaceship with those of a lifeboat.
By using words such as "dangerous," "suicidal," and "misguided," which type of reasoning is the author using?
A. Ethos
B. Logos
C. Ad hominem
D. Pathos

Answer 1

I think it is Pathos because that means tragedy or sadness.

Answer 2

Answer: D) Pathos.

Explanation: When writing, an author can use several rhetorical devices in order to persuade, inform or impact the audience in the desired way. Three of the must used rhetorical devices are ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos is an appeal to the audience's ethics, logos is an appeal to the audience's logic and pathos is an appeal to the audience's emotions. In the given passage we can see an example of the use of pathos, because by using words such as "dangerous," "suicidal," and "misguided" the author appeals to the audience's emotions.