In many of my EWM classes, we have
started the semester’s discussion debating the definition of a certain word;
whether it be rhetoric, classical, agent/cy, or meaning. Throughout these
classroom debates many valid and conflicting ideas get thrown around, leaving
the class flustered and reaching the conclusions that a word can “mean”
anything because we are the ones that give it meaning. As insightful to meaning
as that is, it frustrates me that this is always the conclusion the class comes
to. As humans we have been proven wrong so many times, the earth being flat,
Pluto existing…. Yet we still take every discovery we make as truth and are
uncomfortable with ambiguity.
I for one, welcome ambiguity because it
leaves us with room to grow in our knowledge and prevents a life crisis when we
have a new piece of information. I think Locke really understood this paradox.
He asserts that words are just symbols of abstract and concrete things in our
lives. This is where agency sneaks into this conversation. I believe that one
of the reasons words change meaning is because we as symbol users are agents to
our own ideas. There was a time when “rhetoric” was taboo and insulting, that
is because people wanted to give a name to those tricking people out of a
fairness with eloquent debate. Now however, rhetoric is more respected because
we have broadened its meaning. Today no one would question whether Martin
Luther King or Sojourner Truth where great rhetoricians; that is because it is
not frowned upon to be an agent for something and therefore try to persuade others to join your cause.
1 comment:
I agree with how you say words are ambiguous. The way we use Rhetoric, Agency, and so many others changes constantly as we apply more meanings to them through learning and experiences. I like how you said that we are the agents to the ideas in which we attach to words, agent/cy was not something I had been thinking about when considering how we create meaning for these words and yet how could it not be? The agency of these words is the ideas and meanings we attach to it and therefore important to remember.
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