In the Introduction, Wollstonecraft introduces and defends her emphasis on logos, or the appeal to reason, as a persuasive tool. She is aware that a reliance on logic and reason strengthens her argument because it reflects the subject of her criticism. Because she means to point out the discrepancy between the Enlightenment era’s emphasis on reason and its application to the way that women are actually educated in her day, she has to demonstrate reason in her argument itself. Wollstonecraft therefore explains her penchant for simple logic at the very beginning of her piece. She says:
— I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me unaffected; for, wishing rather to persuade by the force of my arguments, than dazzle by the elegance of my language, I shall not waste my time in rounding periods, or in fabricating the turgid bombast of artificial feelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart. — I shall be employed about things, not words! — and, anxious to render my sex more respectable members of society, I shall try to avoid that flowery diction which has slided from essays into novels, and from novels into familiar letters and conversation.
In this section, Wollstonecraft is very clear about her desire to rely on the logical structure of her arguments over other means of persuasion. Because she uses logos the most out of any method of persuading her reader, this passage makes it clear that she is starting as she means to go on. She shies away from other types of descriptive language, opting instead to be very clear about her intentions and to structure her argument around that straightforwardness. This emphasis is reflective of Wollstonecraft’s intentions with this piece, and it dovetails nicely with her subject matter. In order to educate women properly, they must be allowed to develop their own sense of reason. Here, Wollstonecraft demonstrates hers, and uses it to effectively introduce the rest of her argument.
In Chapter One, Wollstonecraft uses logos to introduce her argument for civil rights, indicating to the reader that she will prize logic and reason over other, more emotional, reasoning tactics. She intends to build her argument from the most basic principles, making it impossible to refute the conclusions that she makes. By showing the reader the tenets of her argument, she can more clearly prove why the inequality between men and women violates them. She says:
To clear my way, I must be allowed to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably appear as unequivocal as the axiom on which reasoning is built; though, when entangled with various motives of action, they are formally contradicted either by the words or conduct of men.
Wollstonecraft’s piece is guided by her desire to prize reason, and she uses a simple tactic to do so in this section—using this quote as an introduction, she follows by asking the reader a series of questions that appeal to their sense of rationality. Because Wollstonecraft uses logos frequently throughout her argument, this first instance is important in that it sets up a manner of arguing for civil rights that she will adhere to for the rest of the piece. She presents her argument this way in order to prove that men are behaving unreasonably, and not only that, that they are acting against their own purported logic. By setting them up at the beginning of this chapter, and at the beginning of the piece, she can later prove the disconnect between men's ideals and their actions.
