Locke's Learning of Language

There is a different kind of agency being presented in Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." It is different because previously most agency was gained be being a certain thing such as an author or a reader or agency was taken away such as with the United Way ads. According to Locke words must "excite in the hearer exactly the same idea they stand for in the mind of the speaker" (Locke 818). To that end, one can develop agency in language as develop skill and understanding in communication. Locke shows his agency over language when he tells us the story a few of his colleagues were discussing liquor and the conversation turned quickly into an argument. Locke proposed that they "first examine and establish amongst them, what the word liquor signified" (locke 822). Locke explains that they complied and then found that "the main of their dispute was about the signification of that term" (Locke 822). Here it is clear that Locke has a certain kind of agency of his peers. Instead of allowing the imperfections  of language to control the conversation, he is able to take control of language and therefore take control of the conversation. He is able to do this because of his time spent thinking and studying language. This time is evidenced by the existence of "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" as a whole.

It's interesting that we haven't encountered this kind of learnable agency before in our analysis of agency. When I think of agency very broadly it seems that wisdom would be a very primary source of agency in general. instead we have seen in specific cases that agency is usually gained or lost by exterior parties. In Nathan Asch's "In Search of America," one poor woman says "if they get an education, it's something nobody can take away from them" ( Asch 287). This is very true and does grant an untouchable agency according to Locke.