In classical rhetoric, proofs (or means of persuasion) that are created by a speaker. In Aristotle's rhetorical theory, these include ethos, pathos, and logos. In Greek, entechnoi pisteis. See also: logical proof.
Observations:
"Of the modes of persuasion some belong strictly to the art of rhetoric and some do not. By the latter [i.e., inartistic proofs] I mean such things as are not supplied by the speaker but are there at the outset--witnesses, evidence given under torture, written contracts, and so on. By the former [i.e., artistic proofs] I mean such as we can ourselves construct by means of the principles of rhetoric. The one kind has merely to be used, the other has to be invented.
"Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are
three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the
speaker [ethos]; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind [pathos]; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself [logos]. Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal
character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him
credible [ethos]. . . . This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to speak. . . . Secondly, persuasion may come through the hearers, when the speech stirs their emotions [pathos]. Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile. . . . Thirdly, persuasion is effected through the speech itself when we have proved a truth or an apparent truth by means of the persuasive arguments suitable to the case in question [logos]."
(Aristotle, Rhetoric)
