Law of contract Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Law of contract - Essay Example However, a counter offer has also been made under which the BD has actually asked Natalie to keep the offer open and if she does, she will get 12 tall glasses also. Considering the above situation, it may be important to ascertain whether Natalie has accepted the offer made by BD. Under this situation, it is important to ascertain the acceptance of the offer and its communication in order to make a formal contract. The offer has been accepted by BD on 18th however, it reached to Natalie on 21st however, under contract law an offer is accepted once the letter of acceptance has been posted if postal acceptance is made. In Adams V Lindsell1 and Henthorn v Fraser2, court decided that an acceptance is complete as soon as the acceptance is posted. Under these conditions Natalie will have to perform her part of the contract and purchase the bottles of Lemonade according to the offer made by her. 2(B) One of the key issues in this case is to decide whether it’s an invitation to treat or an offer to the world which Cruisey Liners plc has made. Under the case law, the advertisement made by the companies is generally considered as an invitation to treat and as such they are not liable to contract on the terms mentioned in the advertisement. An invitation to treat is therefore considered as a willingness of the individuals to negotiate and enter into contract. It is also important to note that in order to become a binding contract, it is critical that the acceptance must be definite in nature. The lack of this therefore may not render a contract binding on other party. (Stone and Cunnington) It is however, important to make a distinction between the invitation to treat and an offer to the world. Under unilateral contract, one party to the contract makes a promise for a reward on the performance of certain act. When an offer is made to the world, its acceptance only occurs when the complete performance of the act is done. (Elliot and Quinn). Considering this, the cas e of Caroline may not require damages for the firm because she has not performed the act. However, in case of Stephen Spider, the same may not be the case as the acceptance of the offer has been made through the performance of the act. It also however, has to be decided as to whether the revocation of offer should be communicated through same channels or not. As a general rule however, the revocation of the offer has to be properly communicated through the same channels. Q#2 The doctrine of privity under the contract law outlines that the rights and obligations arising under the contract can only be imposed on the persons who are party to the contract. As such rights and obligations cannot be enforced on others who are explicitly or implicitly not part of the contract. (McKendrick) The doctrine of privity therefore is also critical under the current environment also as the same help to identify the rights and obligations of third parties under the contract. There are wide range of l aws which are covered under the doctrine of Privity and are decided till today according to this doctrine. Issues such as trusts, estates, collaterals etc are still governed by the doctrine of pri

Whiteness studies Essay Example for Free

Whiteness studies Essay ?In essence, it’s a simple concept: white privilege refers to the both minor and significant advantages that white people have in today’s American society. To be honest reading this article was a huge eye opener for me. I still struggle with both believing that white privilege exists and figuring out how to get rid of it. I have never felt that I was privileged to be white, however, I suppose that could be because as McIntosh states â€Å"whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege† After reading McIntosh’s list of the daily effects of white privilege I now understand these privileges and can put myself into the shoes of other non-white individuals to see how they would perceive me as a privileged white woman. I have never thought of myself as being privileged, or better in any way that those that I come in contact with. The concept of white privilege does not deny my individual hardships that I’ve dealt with throughout life. Hardships can be circumstantial, they can be something we are born with, or even something that we cause on our own. These circumstances are for the most part out of our control. Some hardships are related to race, and those who haven’t experienced those particular race-related hardships, I now suppose are white. In most ways conferred dominance and the fact that whites have been labeled as superior in any way is the exact opposite of the way I feel about myself, and the way I view others in my daily life. After reading McIntosh’s article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, I suppose that I do see some advantages that I may have just always taken for granted. The one that may seem silly, but I’ve always wondered about is: why do they only make white â€Å"flesh† colored band aids? I t seems like a no brainer to me to make them in all flesh tones. In my school community which consists of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade students I struggle to pick out white privileges. I do not feel that any of our teaching staff or administrators see themselves as dominant over any other race or culture within our school community. I suppose that the fact that our school principal, secretary, and most teachers are white would portray dominance within our race. The majority of our staff speak English, however we do have several bilingual teachers and staff members. In the classroom environment, other than our bilingual classrooms the population of white students is greater than that of any other race. As a teacher I am committed to equality and treating all of my students fairly and as equals in our classroom community. I do not think that 7 and 8 year old white students see themselves as dominant of more important than any other classmate. I can, however see how a Black, Hispanic, or students of other cultural background would feel at times to be the minority. I think that this feeling, however is taught to them at home, or somewhat of a learned feeling of identity. In my school community we do our best to incorporate other cultural history into our curriculum by designing lessons that educate our students about important people in our history from a variety of cultures. The majority of our schools population is comprised of white and Hispanic students. I think that as a whole we could do a better job at integrating more of the Hispanic culture into our school’s curriculum. After reading this article I now find myself more aware of the white privilege that I do hold, and am definitely going to work toward building my daily classroom routines and lessons to include a wider variety of cultures and discuss current events around the globe that my students can relate to.

Understanding Development Theory And Practice In Third World Politics Essay

Understanding Development Theory And Practice In Third World Politics Essay This book is a good synthesis and critique on the theory of development after Second World War. It takes historical perspective on analyzing development theory and its practice and tries to find the context-specific result of those development theories and policies in the third world. In doing so, Rapley has tried to be unaffected by any ideological orthodoxy but his left-alignment is clearly visible. John Rapley, who is a political scientist involved in the Department of Government, University of West Indies (Mora), has successfully captured the essence of development theories being applied in the third world after World War II, in this book. The book is lucidly written, well organized, and easy to understand. It includes elaborate endnotes, good index, and thoroughly assembled and categorized bibliography in accordance with their dominant theoretical fervor. The analytical approach of the book has been to follow historical comparison of mainstream development theory and practice, with related criticisms on them. For doing this he has measured the dominant debate between left critics and mainstream theorists from the perspective of dominant paradigms. He has presented the ebb and flow of neo-classical theory, and has done counter-criticism on neo-Marxists and developmental state theories. Though his arguments are balanced and analytical, people with capitalist mentality may find his argument on reemergence of neo-classical ideology immature and left-centered, while those with leftist gloss will find his insights illuminating and worthy. Nevertheless, his analysis of this wide area of development history is worthy read to students, practitioners and scholars. The book is organized into nine chapters. The first chapter, The Progress of Development, is an introduction to the argument presented in the book. The chapter two summarizes the dominant theoretical trend of immediate post-war period namely rise of Keynesianism and emergence of third world, followed by modernist, dependency and state centered theories. Rapley meticulously presents the influence of Keynesian thought on post war period of state centered development. Birth of third world and development economics as a separate sub-discipline were influenced by recognition of third world as a separate entity which demands different development policy design as opposed to the IBRD policy measures adopted for reconstructing Europe and other countries of First and Second World. Then, the book describes development economists of structuralist school who designed import substitution industrialization for the third world. This school of thought believed that international trade favours indus trialized North at the expense of developing South. But, soon the problems of structuralist schools were to be found in development world. Chapter 3 reflects on the performance of state-led development. The performance of state-led development in third world showed dismal performance. Import substitution industries were proved bad performer, license system of government increased corruption and bad governance, semi-public institutions increased the debt burden of state, and many SOEs were going bankrupt. All this led to poor export performance, inefficiency, underemployment, and poor agricultural performance. Although the central planning of statist model proved successful to increase output it couldnt ensure quality and efficiency in its performance which led to overall unproductive utilization of available means thus causing systemic failure. All these policy failures and theoretical disenchantment of state-led development model led to the clear decline of state socialism by 1980s enforcing many countries of Latin America and Africa to follow the conditionalities of their creditors with whom they have had large debt overdue. But, exception to these problems were the East Asian economies, who were able to overcome these problems by appropriately combining the effort of state with the efficiency of market competition and thus were able to catch up with the pace of international market competition. In chapter 4 and 5, basically talks about the neoclassical response to the failure of state-oriented development model of earlier period and its recommendation for reform. The neoclassical proponents reviewed the failure of import substitution and state-supported industrial policies by saying that there would be losers along with gainersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ this was not necessarily bad (p. 83) and earlier development model did wrong by helping out the losers who were the main cause of inefficiency. They now advocated for promoting winners by focusing on creating environment for export industries, smaller firms, and export crop farmers. Policies for creating such environment were recommended under the framework of Washington Consensus which included: fiscal austerity, privatization of state owned enterprises (SOEs), trade liberalization, currency devaluation, and abolition of marketing boards, financial and labour market deregulation, and export promotion. Defined under an umbrella term of Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), these neo-classical prescriptions were openly supported and promoted by Bretton Woods Institutions which consequently were reflected in almost all of the third world countries where these institutions were working. Moreover, after some experience of reform initiatives and collapse of socialist economy led to the addition of accountability and transparency in governments operations as required variables for neoclassical development model thus both political and economic reform became elements of its reform agenda. The subsequent critique on the performance of neo-classical SAP framework is elaborately explained in chapter 5. Here, Rapley depicts the limitations of structural adjustment and emphasizes on how its application became successful by not due to its internal theoretical strength but due to seemingly no counter-force due to the fall of left because of long stagnation of socialism during early 1980s, historical exhaustion of dependency theory with no clear output, and loss of the Marxist self-confidence. Rapley writes: some evidence suggests that there is no reason to assume that less government leads to faster growthà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. if there is any relationship between the two, it may even be that in the aggregate, more government leads to more growth (p.119). His evaluation of the case of privatization, domestic market liberalization, retrenchment, financial and labour market deregulation demonstrates that there are flaws on the theoretical assumptions and practicalities of structural adjustment program. Its assumption of human beings as rational and self-interested actors is not supported. Many sociologist and anthropologists view human action as a part of collective action and some views like Jean Francois Bayart content that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ just as we cannot expect other peoples to behave the way we do, we cannot apply the same principles to judge their behavior. Similarly, differences between first and third world discredited the apparently same principle of development propounded by structural adjustment program; flaws were seen in new political economy ideology of neo-classical writers. Moreover, the neoclassical logic of accepting the material inequality has been criticized by leftists on moral grounds, even if assuming material inequality to be morally neutral leftist theorists would still condemn it for its economic drawbacks (p.116) to poorer ones. Rapley has given emphasis on the birth of possible challenge to neoclassical theory. He clearly seems to be on the side of the left but is cautious enough to predict that the new paradigm wont be too much influenced by classical left or postmodernist hangover. In chapter 6, he asks for the new paradigm of development to be able to work with market and capitalism, while simultaneously opting for greater role for the state than allowed by structural adjustment program. The neo-institutionalist idea that market does not emerge spontaneously and that different cultural background require the creation of different types of institutions led to the reemergence of the need of state involvement in creating and developing economic institutions. The highly interventionist states of East Asia had selectively protected some strategic industries through tariffs and quota at the same time helped them grow through export subsidies and subsidized credit. They promoted firms towards new forms of produ ction and compelled them to increase their competitiveness. These successful policy measures of East Asian countries have been influential theoretical strands for the reemergence of the developmental state paradigm. Ultimately, in chapter 7 Rapley has returned to the Sub Saharan Africa to show that there are many challenges to follow state-supported development as seen in its successful version of East Asian case. The reasons allotted in the book are internal limitations of Africa (especially the weakness of African state) and international obstacles brought forwarded by international balance of power. His reasons for the seemingly low applicability of Asian developmental model in Africa are more political rather than economic. Some causal factors leading to the crisis of state in Africa like: authoritarianism in the third world, state capacity, concentration of power, class politics, etc. proves for Rapley that Africa is against the tide. Furthermore, he also sees obstacle in international systems to follow the strict state-led growth as enjoyed by East Asian countries in 60s through 80s. Rapley argues, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it is not only Africa that the emerging practice of development is running i n a direction contrary to that of the theory. The crisis of the state which sees fiscal constraints forcing public authorities to renounce many of their functions, is international in its scope (p.176). Meanwhile retrenchment of state during SAP implementation led to the development of many non-state actors like NGOs, private sector and other groups working as a state within state leading to the weakening of state functions. The chapter 8, entitled as The end of development or a new beginning? is focused on the idea of post-development thought. This thought challenges us to rethink the entire way we conceive development, and to consider the possibility of a paradigm shift (p.177). Presently the world is facing contested political order where there is resurgence of populist movements against globalization to restore control over space/country; while another strand which is closer to postmodern idea is shifting the focus from national to global level through some works like: UN MDGs or WTOs Doha Development Agenda negotiations. Rapley admits: A discipline that emerged in the early post-World War II periodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ development studies always took for granted the existence of national economies and nation states. Much has changed since. Accordingly, those who take an interest in development are being challenged to conceive new strategies of development. Post-development challenged us to rethink development altogether. (p.200). The recent trend of giving focus on people after the publication of Development As Freedom written by Prof. Amartya Sen has shifted attention of Bretton Woods institutions and other scholars to the fact that development that doesnt improve the lives of the poor people will only provoke resistance and crisis (p.200). Rapley wraps-up the eighth chapter by arguing that the intellectual resistance from post-development ideas and political campaigns of anti-globalization forces has put the agenda of development in the centre stage which is awaiting for good implementation. Finally, in chapter 9 Rapley concludes main arguments presented in the book and also poses some relevant questions demanding serious consideration for leading the future of development. Some of his questions are thought provoking: can development models be universalized? What roles will environmental issues play in development theory? Is there a population time bomb, and how will it affect the third world? What will the new balance between state and society be? At last he has wrapped up his argument by discussing on all these questions in brief. Reviewing the whole book one can easily find that this book is highly comprehensive piece on development theory and practice spending fairly little space or pages. It is praiseworthy to say that this updated volume includes issues of latest debate of 21st century development studies. But, still it has some loopholes. While criticizing on the neoliberal ideas, he has overlooked at its overall performance in countries like India, China, and other high performer countries of 1990s and early 2000s. Similarly, his analysis of third world with high emphasis on African and Latin American countries has ignored poor blocks of South Asian countries and thus has left a large area of development experiment of these years untouched. The number of poor population in South Asian region doesnt justify writers neglect of the region as appropriate. Unlike previous editions of this book, the reviewed third edition has added more to the analysis of future of development. Its analysis of the latest thought of development, viz. post-development, is convincing enough to indicate on the future of development by working together with the questions raised in the concluding chapter. Reading this, readers can guess thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Notwithstanding these criticisms, Rapleys work is able to present a comprehensive and succinct treatise on the history of development thoughts and practice in third world. His way of presenting the mainstream argument along with the main criticism propounded by left and others on each of these development theories is interesting and useful. This book is can be recommended as a must read for upper level undergraduate students, useful guide for graduate level students, and a common discourse with new insights for the scholars. Readers will not regret about their time and money spent for the book after completing the last sentence.

The New Economy Essay -- essays research papers

THE NEW ECONOMY It works in America. Will it go global? It seems almost too good to be true. With the information technology sector leading the way, the U.S. has enjoyed almost 4% growth since 1994. Unemployment has fallen from 6% to about 4%, and inflation just keeps getting lower and lower. Leaving out food and energy, consumer inflation in 1999 was only 1.9%, the smallest increase in 34 years. This spectacular boom was not built on smoke and mirrors. Rather, it reflects a willingness to undertake massive risky investments in innovative information technology, combined with a decade of retooling U.S. financial markets, governments, and corporations to cut costs and increase flexibility and efficiency. The result is the so-called New Economy: faster growth and lower inflation. Most corporate executives and policymakers in Europe and Asia, once skeptical about the U.S. performance, have taken this lesson to heart. There are still widespread misgivings about the U.S. model of free-market capitalism. But driven by a desire for faster growth, combined with a fear of being left behind, the rest of the world is starting to embrace the benefits of a technology-driven expansion. But a global New Economy will not happen overnight. True, spending on technology, the most visible part of the New Economy, while not yet up to U.S. levels, is on the rise everywhere. Semiconductor sales were up 17% worldwide in 1999, while the number of Internet users in Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region is expected to more than double over the next five years (chart). Even in a developing country such as India, the software industry is growing at a rate of 50% to 60% annually. OLD VIRTUES. But the worldwide proliferation of mobile phones and Web accounts by itself will not bring about a more vibrant global economy. What are also needed are dramatic changes in core institutions that will translate technology into faster productivity growth. That means financial markets better able to fund innovation, more flexibility in corporations and labor markets, a faster pace of deregulation, and increased competition (table). ``The New Economy is built on old virtues: thrift, investment, and letting market forces operate,'' says Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers. There are signs that the process of change has started. With growth picking up in Europe, and Asia emerging fro... ...dents accounted for two-thirds of the growth in science and engineering doctorates at U.S. universities. Most of them planned to stay and work in the country. Like many other aspects of the New Economy, opening up the doors to foreign workers won't come easily in many countries. But the genie is out of the bottle--now that the U.S. has shown that faster growth is possible, no country will be able to resist it. In the end, the benefits will be well worth the pain. The Road to the New Economy Here's what countries must do to get a high-productivity, low-inflation economy BOOST INVESTMENT SPENDING on information technology as a share of GDP RESTRUCTURE CORPORATIONS to cut costs, improve flexibility, and make better use of technology OPEN FINANCIAL MARKETS to direct capital to the best uses DEVELOP VENTURE CAPITAL and IPO markets to aid innovative companies ENCOURAGE AN ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE and make it easier to start new businesses INCREASE THE PACE OF DEREGULATION especially in telecom and labor markets ADJUST MONETARY POLICY to the realities of the New Economy by waiting for inflation to appear before raising interest rates

The Philosophy of Cartesianism

â€Å"Cogito, ergo sum† (â€Å"I think, therefore I am. â€Å"), Descartes famous basis for his philosophy of Cartesianism, is also compelling evidence towards the defense of one of the most famous of the early Greek teachers, Socrates. In order to be, one must think. Socrates was a seeker of truth, and the highest knowledge is knowing what is best for oneself and one†s community. He was penalized and served the ultimate sentence for his belief in the true nature of education. He was blamed for opposing the authoritative belief that education had the sole purpose of transmitting social mores intact. He believed instead that education was meant to examine and re-evaluate social norms for the betterment of society. It was his re-evaluation of social norms that was perceived as dangerous by his society. This leads to the question, â€Å"Is it dangerous to think to much? † Is it sometimes better to let things be, in order to keep the peace? One of the many charges brought against Socrates was the charge of corrupting the youth with his teachings. Instead of letting the laws govern their lives, he was attempting to show his pupils ways of rationalizing their own world. God originally gave mankind free will so that we would not become a bunch of robots walking around doing his bidding, and yet this is what traditions were doing. The customs of early Athens were limiting on what a person could or could not believe. Socrates believed independent thought in itself could never be bad. It is what one does with this knowledge that determines its worth. Socrates believed that â€Å"self-knowledge† is different from the â€Å"knowledge of information† that had been handed down from generation to generation. Socrates was more concerned with ethical knowledge: self-understanding means self-improvement. Not only must one know what it means to be a human being and understand one's own character (and how it falls short of the ideal), but knowing better means doing better. Knowledge becomes a virtue. One must transform one's own character in the light of one's vision of what is best. Socrates believed true knowledge or human wisdom was not abstract information or facts that filled the brain. It is knowledge that transforms character, brings order to a disorderly life, refines attitude, and makes one better. This self-understanding that Socrates taught his pupils is actually beneficial to a community. When one has order in their lives, it is easier for them to bring order to the world around them. When you smile the world cannot help smiling too. Conversely, when one allows himself to be corrupted, he corrupts the society around them. Self-improvement equals social reform. At the same time, social reform requires knowledge of what is best for the community (as a whole). Thus, since self-improvement and social reform are interdependent, self-knowledge and knowledge of social justice are also interdependent. Ethics is inseparable from politics and individual good is inseparable from the common good. Therefore, by teaching the youth to think without worrying about following tradition, Socrates not only helps them enhances themselves, but he improves society in general. There still remains the question as to whether or not this constant inquiry into the world can be detrimental. Without pioneers of thought, pioneers of action would never exist. As science progresses through time, more and more of its theories are being put into development. Although the progress of science has greatly enhanced society and the world we live in, there are many cases where an invention or discovery managed to set society back. One of the best examples of this is weapons of mass destruction, more specifically, the A-bomb. No one would disagree that this was a terrible thing to create; even the inventor had hesitations when he figured out what he was doing. Still he made it, and as society progress, it progressively develops newer and more destructive weapons. The irony is that the leaders of society are the people pushing for the bigger and better weapons, for the sake a guaranteeing public safety. Yet as more and more weapons are created the inevitable mass destruction of all societies becomes evident. In this way, Socratic thought and the quest for knowledge is detrimental to a society. Pure Socratic belief is best summed up by his saying, â€Å"the unexamined life is not worth living. † Many of Socrates adversaries believed that this principle was an open invitation for anarchy. Examining life leads to new ideas that do not necessarily conform with the beliefs of society. This causes great movements of revolution. Socrates believed these movements were a great tool in the advancement of civilization. One great proof against this idea is the rise of Hitler and communism. Hitler examined his life and found that the Jews were the source of all his problems. He therefore decided to kill as many of them that he could. His ultimate goal was genocide. In this case the personal thoughts of an individual did not help the advancement of society. The new debate becomes, â€Å"Is it justifiable to condemn a person for Socratic behavior? † The answer is no. Everyone should be allowed to quest for knowledge. That is why the necessity for a college education in the modern world is so strong. Society needs thinkers. What is condemnable is the specific actions that are taken as a result of some of these thoughts. Hypothesizing about what a weapon of mass destruction can do and testing it out on innocent people and animals are two different things. Many people criticize Socrates for not being a man of action. All Socrates ever accomplished was questioning and probing the democratic beliefs of his day. He built nothing, and he wrote nothing, all he did was think, and a person cannot be condemned for their thoughts. In the big picture, people should be encouraged to think for themselves, to decide what they are going to believe and what they are going to dismiss as fiction. Society has the right to punish a man†s actions if they are causing harm to society, but expressing a view other than popular opinion is not harmful to society. In actuality, contemplation can help to resolve many of society†s problems. Meditation on a problem leads to possible solutions to the problem, and in essence, progress. By examining oneself, a person gains better insight into who they are, and where their place in society is. This allows them to become more secure with themselves and more efficient in the community. Socratic behavior is about examining everything in order to gain knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge is not condemnable as long as no one is getting hurt.

Definition, Examples, and Observations on Writing

Definition, Examples, and Observations on Writing (1) Writing is a system of graphic symbols that can be used to convey meaning. See the observations below. Also, see the following topics related to the writing system: AlphabetGraphemicsHandwritingIdeogramLanguageLetter (2) Writing is the act of composing a text. See the observations below. Also, see the following topics related to composition: Academic WritingThe Advantages of Slow Reading and Slow WritingBasic WritingBusiness WritingCollaborative WritingComposition-RhetoricDraftingOnline WritingOverwritingPrewritingRevisionTechnical WritingWriterWriting ProcessYour Writing: Private and Public Writers on Writing Quotes About WritingWhat Is the Secret of Good Writing?What Is Writing Like? (Explaining the Writing Experience Through Similes and Metaphors)Writers on RewritingWriters on WritingWriters on Writing: Overcoming Writers Block Etymology and Pronunciation From an Indo-European root, to cut, scratch, sketch an outline Pronunciation: RI-ting Observations Writing and Language Writing is not language. Language is a complex system residing in our brain which allows us to produce and interpret utterances. Writing involves making an utterance visible. Our cultural tradition does not make this distinction clearly. We sometimes hear statements such as Hebrew has no vowels; this statement is roughly true for the Hebrew writing system, but it is definitely not true for the Hebrew language. Readers should constantly check that they are not confusing language and writing.(Henry Rogers, Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach. Blackwell, 2005) Origins of Writing Most scholars now accept that writing began with accountancy. . . . In the late 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia reached a point at which it outstripped the power of memory of the governing elite. To record transactions in a dependable, permanent form became essential... [E]ssential to the development of full writing, as opposed to the limited, purely pictographic writing of North American Indians and others, was the discovery of the rebus principle. This was the radical idea that a pictographic symbol could be used for its phonetic value. Thus a drawing of an owl in Egyptian hieroglyphs could represent a consonant sound with an inherent m; and in English a picture of a bee with a picture of a leaf might (if one were so minded) represent the word belief.(Andrew Robinson, The Story of Writing. Thames, 1995) The Literate Revolution in Ancient Greece By Aristotles time, political orators, including Demosthenes, were publishing written, polished versions of speeches they had earlier delivered. Though writing had been introduced into Greece in the ninth century [BC], publication long remained a matter of oral presentation. The period from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the fourth centuries B.C. has been called the time of a literate revolution in Greece, comparable to the changes brought in the fifteenth century by the introduction of printing and in the twentieth century by the computer, for reliance on writing greatly increased in this period and affected the perception of texts; see Havelock 1982 and Ong 1982. . . . Rhetoric gave increased attention to the study of written composition. The radical effects of greater reliance on writing can, however, be exaggerated; ancient society remained oral to a much greater degree than modern society, and the primary goal of the teaching of rhetoric was consistently an ability to speak in public. (George A. Kennedy, Aristotle, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Oxford University Press, 1991) Plato on the Strange Quality of Writing Thamus replied [to Theuth], Now you, who are the father of letters, have been led by your affection to ascribe to them a power the opposite of that which they really possess. For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. . . . You offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant. Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange quality, and is very like painting; for the creatures of painting stand like living beings, but if one asks them a question, they preserve a solemn silence. And so it is with written words; you might think they spoke as if they had intelligence, but if you question them, wishing to know about their sayings, they always say only one and the same thing. And every word, when once it is written, is bandied about, alike among those who understand and those who have no interest in it, and it knows not to whom to speak or not to speak; when ill-treated or unjustly reviled it always needs its father to help it; for it has no power to protect or help itself.(Socrates in Platos Phaedrus, translated by H. N. Fowler) Further Reflections on Writing Writing is like a drug, too often employed by quacks who dont know what is true and what is false. Like a drug, writing is both a poison and a medicine, but only a real doctor knows its nature and the proper disposition of its power.(Denis Donoghue, Ferocious Alphabets. Columbia University Press, 1981)Writing is not a game played according to rules. Writing is a compulsive, and delectable thing. Writing is its own reward.(Henry Miller, Henry Miller on Writing. New Directions, 1964)Writing is really a way of thinkingnot just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.(Toni Morrison, quoted by Sybil Steinberg in Writing for Your Life. Pushcart, 1992)Writing is more than anything a compulsion, like some people wash their hands thirty times a day for fear of awful consequences if they do not. It pays a whole lot better than this type of compulsion, but it is no more heroic.(Julie Burchill, Sex and Sensibility, 1992)It is necess ary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? for the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows; he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.(Vita Sackville-West, Twelve Days, 1928) You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: theres no free lunch. Writing is work. Its also gambling. You dont get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but  ­essentially youre on your own.  ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so dont whine.(Margaret Atwood, Rules for Writers. The Guardian, February 22, 2010)Why one writes is a question I can answer easily, having so often asked it myself. I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. I could not live in any of the worlds offered to methe world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere where I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art. We also write to heighten our awareness of life. We write to lure, enchant, and to console others. We write to serenade. We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and once in retrospection. We write to be able to transcend our life, to reach beyond it. We write to teach ourselves to speak to others, to record the journey into the labyrinth. We write to expand our world when we feel strangled or restricted or lonely.(Anaà ¯s Nin, The New Woman. In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976) The Lighter Side of Writing Writing is like the worlds oldest profession. First, you do it for your own enjoyment. Then you do it for a few friends. Eventually, you figure, what the hell, I might as well get paid for it.(Television scriptwriter Irma Kalish)