All this business about identification and love and BAVs can lead one to think that public speaking is mostly about feelings. If you’re starting to think — or better, feel — that, then you’d be right. Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about public speaking in our culture is that it is reasoned and works by appealing to our sense of logic. Since antiquity, there has been a focus on reasoned argument in public speaking, but in the twentieth century, there was a tendency to overemphasize logic and reason. To be a good public speaker in our postmodern times, you should focus on feelings at least as much as you focus on logic.
For starters, doing so will allow you to address the whole human being, not just the rational part. Neurologist Antonio Damasio has made his career arguing that human reason functions in concert with feelings and cannot work without them. If the part of the human brain that processes feelings and bodily sensation is damaged, various forms of judgment — such as ethical reasoning — become impaired.