Lately, I have been reassessing my view of logic as a mode of persuasion privileged above appeals to baser emotions or instincts. I used to place logic on a pedestal, and perhaps I will continue forever to do so; the core of my being still clings to the persistent, and unchanging certitude of logic... The correctness, one-and-only-true-answer finality of logic lured me away from the mercurial hot-today-cold-tomorrow whims of emotions. For logic is the medium of choice of my educators, and it is with logic that they use to mold us. Perhaps we, desperate for approval, acquiesce... and as a result believe only logic and reason can claim to give us knowledge/convince us of "the truth"/persuade us to a point of view. 

The vessel of logic is words.  Words, their meaning and form, obey the dictates of logic. The instrument of communication, the sacred chalice of thoughts and feelings that we drink from and pour into others is... The custodian of our intellectual heritage as well as its executor is... The weaver of the real and unreal, both capable of reaching into our hearts and impelling us is...

...words.

But perhaps my reverence for words (my craft), and by proxy logic, is somewhat misplaced... After all, the heartbeat of words, the frame and flavour of their meaning, comes from logic's diametric cousin... A more powerful, persuasive force, that which moves us to action, the essence of charisma - emotion. And this emotion is no one's stranger; it is, to me, an old friend I am reacquainting with. Everyone is born a master of their emotions; as children, they use it deftly to persuade, or even manipulate, others (parents) to their will. As we grow older, knowledge and its associate, logic, fight for primacy in our heads, such that we begin to lose our natural talent, our emphatic sense. Yet, if our goal is to move others, is it not necessary to re-emphasize this neglected gift?

Logicians might decry the fallaciousness of argumentum ad hominem (personal attacks), but can one deny its effectiveness? Or that of argumentum ad populum? Even sceptics must mitigate their arguments to be consistent with the reality of their emotions. Surely, logic as a tool of persuasion is subservient to appeals to emotion.

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