“Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
- John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
We talked about ethos - argument by character, pathos - argument by emotions, and logos - argument by logic.
Today, I want to talk about argument by beauty.
The Truth has an elegance to it, an element of beauty. So pronounced is this element, that beauty is often seen as a test of truth.
Paul Dirac, one of the greatest physicists of all time, was perhaps the strongest proponent of the connection between beauty and truth. He believed that all fundamental truths must be (mathematically) beautiful.
“A physical law must possess mathematical beauty,” Dirac wrote on the blackboard when he visited the University of Moscow in 1956 and was asked to write an inscription summarizing his basic view of physics.
This isn’t just about poets and physicists, it’s also about us common folks. We too, perceive beauty as a proof of truth. And this is why we are much more susceptible to beautiful arguments than plain ones - A succinct, eloquent argument will convince you much more effectively than a well-researched 1000-word essay. For example - Tyrion Lannister’s statement in Game of Thrones: “ … a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge.”
BUT… while beauty is an indication of truth, it definitely is not proof of it. For just as all that glitters is not gold, all that’s beautiful is not truth.
A beautifully expressed lie can be more persuasive than a poorly expressed truth… cause we conflate the argument’s beauty with truth.
And thus, beauty plays a very important role in persuasion.
Beautiful arguments appeal to your subconscious, and the most beautiful arguments do not raise your guard at all… so natural and logical they seem. While an argument relying on logic forces you to think and thus engaging your conscious mind… such beautiful arguments seep into your thought process as they’re your own.
Typically in a clash of ideas, it's not just about right or wrong… cause sometimes there is no right or wrong. It’s all speculation…
Should you invest in this business? Should you work on this feature? Should you go out with me?
And especially in these cases, the argument’s beauty becomes all the more important.
When you’re trying to persuade somebody, you’d benefit more from a beautifully-put argument than with just brute logic and facts. In a way, it's about the economics of communication - you have limited resources, in this case limited time and attention of the audience, and it's about making the best use of this limited time. A beautiful argument can do in 10 seconds what a plain argument can manage in one hour (which you don’t have).
Here then are a few key elements that comprise of beauty in arguments -
- Succinctness and Accuracy - Like a sniper. An accurate and succinct argument may render opponents dumbfounded, as they’re hard to object to.
- Conviction - Conviction is contagious. The more you believe in your argument, the more your audience believes in it too.
- Beautiful, elevated words - I don’t mean jargon, but words that are just a notch above your common words while not being too complex to understand, give you an air of nobility.
- Figures of speech - Like similes, metaphors, and others. Figures of speech are like special weapons in your communication arsenal - a well placed metaphor would improve your argument by ten times.
- The Vocal Image - The volume, pace, pitch, and rhythm with which the argument is delivered.
The best way to be better at forming beautiful arguments, is to be alive about what beautiful arguments convince you, and ask yourself… are they truly substantial, or just aesthetic?
