Guide to Kairos in Rhetoric: How to Use Kairos to Communicate

The ancient Greek word kairos roughly translates to mean "the right time." In Greek both the word kairos and the word chronos can mean "time," but only kairos connotes timeliness. In contemporary usage, a kairotic event or cultural offering seems to occur at exactly the right place at the right time.

The concept of kairos appears often in classical rhetoric; ancient Greek Sophists described kairos in rhetoric as speech timed for opportune moments, under the premise that great orators knew when to seize on the right moment to introduce certain ideas. Ancient Greek thinkers like Plato and Aristotle largely broke with the Sophists, but they, too, stressed the importance of kairos.

In the tradition of Aristotle's Rhetoric, kairotic rhetorical appeals are those that use the right strategies at perfectly appointed times. Aristotle specifies three rhetorical modes of persuasion: logos (appeals to reason), pathos (appeals to emotion), and ethos (appeals to ethics). Aristotle submits that each of these three tactics enjoys a time and place when it is more effective than the other two. This, to Aristotle, exemplified kairos—actively strategizing to use effective rhetoric at the precisely right moment.

A skilled rhetorical tactician will know when to use logos, pathos, and ethos within the context of a persuasive speech. If a person is in a highly emotional state, bombarding them with facts (i.e. logos) may be poorly received and thus not kairotic. By practicing kairos, a speaker would know they should proceed with pathos and only use logos later in the conversation, if at all.

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