%% [[Writing Philosophy with Hypertext]] [[Introduction to the Philosophy of Writing (Syllabus)]] [[Philosophy of Writing]] %% [[Writing Philosophy with Hypertext]] - **[[A Brief History of Writing]]** - [[History of Writing I The Alphabet]] - [[History of Writing II Printing]] - [[History of Writing III Digitization]] # A Brief History of Writing - Writing has a background almost natural character in human life. As such, it is easy to mistake writing as a perennial and unchanging practice. - But while humans may innately posses the capacity to write, writing is neither coextensive with human social existence nor a constant presence therein. Instead, writing is deeply historical practice, having come into existence at disparate historical moments in specific social contexts that shape the manner and meaning of writing. And having been invented, writing continues to change as humans transform the technical and social environments in which they write. - In particular, three revolutionary moments mark the history of writing after its inception. - First, the [[History of Writing I The Alphabet|alphabetic revolution]] that began in c200 BCE, first as a working class technology in Egypt that became socially generalized with the invention of Greek and Latin script, themselves laying the foundation for modern alphabetical languages. - Second, [[History of Writing II Printing|printing revolution]] initiated by the invention of alphabetic moveable type printing, which laid the foundation for the mass production of texts. - And third, the ongoing [[History of Writing III Digitization|digital revolution]], which has not only transformed existing writing technologies, but created new forms of writing whole cloth. ## References - Bazerman, C. (Ed.). (2008). _Handbook of research on writing: History, society, school, individual, text._ Taylor & Francis Group/Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 47-60. - Clayton 2013, *The Golden Thread - The Story of Writing* - Daniels 2013, "The History of Writing as a History of Linguistics" - Fischer 2003, *A History of Writing* - Harris 1986, *The Origin of Writing* - Olson "What Writing Represents - A Revisionist History of Writing," pp. 65-91. In Olson, D. R. (1994). _The World on Paper: The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and Reading._ Cambridge University Press. - Powell 2009, *Writing - Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization* - Robertson 2020, *BC Before Computers - On Information Technology from Writing to the Age of Digital Data*