UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

While John Locke presents a novel concept coined “empty words,” he minimallydescribes it in his essay “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” originally published in1689, then re-printed in books like “The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical times tothe Present” by Bizzell and Herzberg. In addition, he daringly challenges the definition ofrhetoric and its relationship to the use of empty words. This essay attempts to define and exploresthe existence of empty words in the various definitions of rhetoric proposed by the followinggreat philosophers: Aristotle, Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Francis Bacon, Longinus,Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (Quintilian), and of course John Locke.