Professor helps student apply philosophical theory when asking out his crush, and it actually worked
Dating's not a science. But, by the looks of this student's experience, it might well be an art.
Student Jake—who goes by the handle @squidslippers on Twitter—went to his English professor for advice about asking out his crush, Hannah.
"Yooo I have about 0 skills when it comes to texting girls so I legit asked my English professor to help me draft a text to a girl and we straight ethos, logos, pathosed my way into a date," wrote Jake on Twitter.
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Ethos, logos, and pathos are the three methods of persuasion mentioned by Aristotle in Rhetoric, a philosophical text which dates back to the 4th century BC.
Ethos essentially means appealing to an individual's moral values when making an argument. Jake's professor instructed him to apply the principle of ethos to his asking-out efforts. "Ethos: I don't want to come on too strong or pressure. Just a friendly outing. I am kind of cool sometimes," wrote Jake's professor on a diagram.
Logos is the practice of detailing facts or figures to support a person's claims. In Jake's case, he used "free food, a break from work, a good low-stress time" to support his request for a date.
Pathos means appealing to an audience's emotions. Jake's pathos was simply "it will be fun!"
Jake put this theory into practice and sent Hannah a text, asking her out on a date. "Well hey, I hate to come on too strong here but if you ever could use a stress-free night after work or need some food to keep you alive while you're moving into your new apartment, I would love to take you to dinner," wrote Jake. "It would be fun and a great way for me to see your dog, which is low key why I'm doing this." Smooth.
Ethos, pathos, and logos seem to have paid off in this instance. Hannah said yes and suggested a date, time, and even said she'd bring along Winston the dog. Best. Outcome. Ever.
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Jake tweeted photos of him and Hannah out on their date. Naturally the pics wouldn't have been complete without Winston the "chill AF" doggo.
Aww.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
