Associating Ethos with Objects: Reasoning from Character of Public Figures to Actions in the World

Abstract Ethotic arguments, such as arguments from expert opinion and ad hominem play an important role in communication practice. In this paper, we argue that there is another type of reasoning ethos, which people about actions the world. These subspecies ethotic are very common public debates: societies involved heated disputes what should be done with monuments historical figures Stalin or Colston: Should demolish building they funded? revere their statues? street named after them renamed? ; general vividly legacy producers, directors actors debates #MeToo movement: new movies distributed? scenes deleted motion pictures? stars Hollywood Walk Fame removed? Many these boil down to character figures: He was a slave trader!—But he part our history; harassed young girl!—But actor . The step here legitimised by association between person extra-linguistic object: figure statue movie. nature explained paper using Peirce’s theory signs. We propose extend existing approach patterns ethos will help us shed light on argumentation open avenue for systematic account unexplored argument forms.