Pathos = pathology or empathy?

When arguing, using pathos is a powerful rhetoric device because of the way it gets people to read or listen to the argument. We get the words sympathy and empathy from the word pathos. When you make up a scenario that someone can relate to, like in The Case for Torture, when he uses the dying babies, you get a different reaction out of the reader than if you were to just say, “torture is right.” When you use an example like the dying babies, of course the reader is going to think, “DYING BABIES? THAT’S HORRIBLE! WE SHOULD TORTURE PEOPLE FOR THAT. ” And then, you have won your argument. The audience agreed with you because you put them into an emotional situation. Its also hard for people to think in a rational way when things that our society have decided are wrong start happening. Of course its not ok to steal, its not ok to kill someone. When you use arguments that put peoples emotions into it, it gets people to think about it differently and more personally than if you were to just say what you thought.