When Locke describes how we learn the definition of words it surprised me how little has changed. "the sounds are usually learned first; and then, to know what complex ideas they stand for, they are either beholden to the explication of others, or are left to their own observation and industry;" (819). In a day and age where most of us have google in our pocket we still learn the definition of new words by observing how others use it and derive our own meaning from those observation. Because of this our definition for words behind complex ideas, such as rhetoric, often change and evolve as more observations are made. with this in mind I'm excited to see how my definition of rhetoric at the end of this semester differs from my definition at the beginning.
Cody,
ReplyDeleteI like how your post brings us back to the first day of class and the tons of different definitions of rhetoric that were put on the board. I had no idea what rhetoric was so when hearing the term on the first day of class, I had no words that came to mind but now I feel like I have too many. In Locke's reading he brings attention to the numerous definitions a word may have, especially for complex ideas, and how it can be a hinderance. But for the term rhetoric this is not necessarily a bad thing, since rhetoric means so many different things. Like you said, "...definition for words behind complex ideas, such as rhetoric, often change and evolve as more observations are made" which I completely agree with. In my post, I focused on audience and how one must chose the right words for a specific audience. However, I never thought about words such as rhetoric that have multiple meanings, so your post shed light on a different side of the reading that I did not think about which I enjoyed!