Research on Piagets Developmental Psychology Theory

Research on Piagets Developmental Psychology Theory The great contribution of Jean Piaget on developmental psychology is undoubtedly. However, in the past 30 years, there are a number of study criticism his suggestion, which the infant younger than six months do not have the permanent object concept. What follows is a discussion of examining when infant would acquire object concept. First, it will explain the proposition of Piaget on this topic. Then, it will examine Bower’s study which challenges and questions Piaget’s claim of the object concept. After that, it will focus on Baillargeon’s study and found out the flaw and weakness of her study by different recent research. Finally, it will draw a conclusion on the topic. In 60s, Jean Piaget suggested the theory of cognitive development. In Piaget (1963), he started to investigate the age when the infants acquire object permanence. He considers object permanence as the most vital accomplishments. This concept makes human can separate different objects and know permanent existence of an object (Piaget, 1963). Which mean under the object concept human could understand each object is unitary entities and exist independently of third party actions (Piaget, 1963). Piaget suggested that infant younger than 8 month still did not acquire the object permanence concept (Piaget, 1963). In these infant’s mind, an object out of sight is out of mind. Piaget thought that 4–8 months infant start to develop a object concept slowly and gradually on this stage. Also, during this stage they are having a transition from egocentric (just using self-to-object view) to allocentric (could use object-to-object view) (Piaget, 1963). The main changes in this transi tion is that the infant start to use a viewpoint of a third person or object and seen themselves as an independent object. In Piaget’s Blanket and Ball Study, he put a toy under a blanket, meanwhile the infant can watch the whole process (Piaget, 1977). Then observe infant searched for the hidden toy or not. This experiment, Piaget define that if the infant succeeds to discover the hidden toy, then it was an evidence of object permanence (Piaget, 1977). Since he assumed that only the infant had a mental representation can search for a hidden toy. In the result, he found that infant around 8-months-old succeeds to search for the hidden toy (Piaget, 1977). Finally, he concludes that infant around 8 months acquired object permanence, due to they can form a mental representation of the object in their brain. Although Piaget‘s research got a high level of reliability (Harris, 1987), there is a lack of explanation for why the rest of infant (before 8 month) fails in the experiment (Mehler Dupoux, 1994). Diamond (1988) found that the prefrontal cortex of human is related to holding representation in memory and motor response. Base on this finding, Mehler Dupoux (1994) suggested that the infants who fail to search imply rather than the absence of an object concept. They may have an inability to coordinate the movements. Which mean if the research constructs a task that without complex motor demands, it may examine object permanence in the infant who younger than 8 months more accurately. In the study of Bower (1966; 1967), he has used a violation of expectation (VOE) paradigm to examine it. Bower gave object occlusion and reveal events in infant to watch. Some of them were possible (object slowly hidden by another) and some impossible (object slowly dissolving) (Bower, 1966). Bower t hrough measure the changes in heart rate of infant to indicate the differences of their reaction to two events. Then through the response to infer a degree of object permanence in eight weeks old infant. However, there had a confounding effect of novelty in infant which the researcher was not noticed before the experiment (Bower, 1967). As the result, infant just interest in the possible event not impossible event. Whereas the confounding factor, it could not draw any interpretation from the data but it construct a VOE experimental framework to the latter study. After that Bower, Broughton and Moore (1971) kept investigating the topic by using tracking tasks to 20 week-old infants. They leaded the infant track a moving object and recorded the result as it approached and passed behind a blocker. They found that the gaze of infants were disrupted when after the object pass through the blocker and switch to a different one. It implied that infants have an expectation of the original object would emerge again but disrupts by the experiment. In the other word, a 20 week-old infants may also have ability of object permanence and persistent internal representation. Their finding totally contradicted to Piaget theory. After on, Bower and Wishart (1972) used 20 week-old infants again to take part in the experiment which leaded the infants track the object and it will occlude, darkening the room. The result showed the infants continued to track for the object on the trajectory. It supported the result of Bower et al (1971) and continues challenging Piaget’s belief. In 80s, a researcher Baillargeon done a series of studies and experiment to criticize Piaget’s theory. Baillargeon, Spelke and Wasserman (1985) utilize VOE within a habituation method to examine infant’s mental ability. Habituation is assumed to count as the infants start looking away due to loss of interest. Two equivalent test events are shown to them based on the first habituation event. One was consistent with object properties (the possible event), and the other one was not (the impossible event) (Baillargeon et al, 1985). It is vital to note that they also assumed different degrees of dishabituation were indicated by the length of looking time between the test events. Then, of degrees of dishabituation to infer about infants’ object concept. Baillargeon et al (1985) constructed a ‘drawbridge study’ to test the 5 months old infants. For the habituation event, the drawbridge rotated through 180 ° itself. In the test event, a coloured block was placed behind the drawbridge, then, the drawbridge rotated backward to the block. For the possible event, the drawbridge normally stopped at a place which the block supported it. For the impossible event, the drawbridge continue to rotate and pass through the space that occupied by the block. For these events, the drawbridge finally rotate reversed to its original position. In their finding, a youngest 14 week infants had a longer looking time at the impossible event (Baillargeon et al, 1985). Furthermore, the result had appeared several times in the latter study and confirmed by using a variety of stimuli (Baillargeon 1986; Baillargeon Graber, 1987; Baillargeon DeVos, 1991). As above explain. Baillargeon using the dishabituation result on the impossible event to int erpret infants were surprised by the event and imply infants have an expectations about the normal rule of objects. Then, Baillargeon drew a conclusion that these inferences proved infants have a permanent object concept which substantially earlier than 8 month (Piaget’s claim). However, there also lots of study found some flaw of Baillargeon’s study and criticise it. On the research of Bogartz, Shinskey and Speaker (1997), they found a confounding factor on Baillargeon Graber (1987) study, indicated there could have some missed stimulus features on infant’s gaze when habituating. As the consequence, it would increase the attraction of an impossible event and confound to the experimental result (Bogartz et al, 1997). Other criticisms about Baillargeon’s study suggest by Rivera, Wakeley and Langer (1999). They discovered that the habituation event and the impossible event of the Baillargeon’s ‘drawbridge’ studies, both event were scored longer gazing time. They interpreted that infants just prefer the event which involveed more movement and that would gain more attention of infants (remark: impossible event has 180 ° rotation and possible event only has 112 °) (Rivera et al, 1999). Also, Bogartz et al and Rivera et al both found the incompleteness of some VOE experimental designs which were replicating the VOE findings of (Wang, Baillargeon and Brueckner’s, 2004) were without habituation trials. They argued that it is important to complete a habituating events before testing event to produce transient preferences. Furthermore, in the recent Baillargeon’s study, she acknowledged that her interpretation of her own VOE researches were having some flaw and may be plausible. Due to the development of science was progressing quickly, the method of measuring cognitive thinking also progressed which bring a severe challenge to Baillargeon’s inference. Schà ¶ner and Thelen (2006) constructed the habituation and VOE task base on a dynamic field model. By their method, did not need to invoke any kind of symbolic mental representation. They just utilized the dynamic field model on modelling Baillargeon’s drawbridge’ studies and VOE tasks and treated it as â€Å"a series of perceptual events subject to basic habituation dynamicsâ€Å"(Schà ¶ner Thelen, 2006; p.289). They suggested that assumptions of Baillargeon’s VOE paradigms were misleading and oversimplify the dynamics of habituation in significant which mean there were many interactions of variables were not accounted. Such as they found an order effect on VOE experiment (done by Baillargeon, 1987) when presented the impossible stimulus in order of the second. Therefore it w as unable to use Baillargeon’s study to interpret about infant’s object concept and acquire it at which stage. Although Schà ¶ner and Thelen’s model seemto overturn the result of all pervious VOE studies, some point should be pay attention. First, at the very beginning the dynamic field model is just a mathematical abstraction and it originally was designed for measuring cognitive thinking. Second, when Schà ¶ner and Thelen (2006) model Baillargeon’s study, they had assumed that the impossible event was more similar to the habituation event. Finally, they did not solve the problem of stimulus equivalence in VOE experiment. In this paper, it has explained how Piaget interprets infant cognitive thinking and how they perceive the world and how they process the visual information. Then, it examined the view of different developmental psychologist research, mainly from Bower and Baillargeon. Finally, through a modern perceptive of Schà ¶ner Thelen criticise Baillargeon’s study. However, in the last this paper still cannot draw a conclusion about at what age the infant would acquire object concept. Since scientists still do not have a method that could directly read infant’s or humans mind. If the researcher continues using some indirect method such as habituation VOE and interpretation of infant’s object concept. There are usually having some flaw because in the process of interpreting, it may involve certain extend of guessing (e.g in Baillargeon’s drawbridge’ studies, she observed dishabituation, then she guessed the infant was surprised, then guessed infant might have object concept.) Therefore, in this paper cannot find an exact answer to the topic question. References Baillargeon, R, Graber, M. (1987). Where’s the Rabbit? 5.5-Month-Old Infants’ Representations of the Height of a Hidden Object. Cognitive Development, 2, 375-392. Baillargeon, R. DeVos, J. (1991). Object Permanence in Young Infants: Further Evidence. ChildDevelopment, 62, 1227-1246. Baillargeon, R. (1986). Representing the Existence and the Location of Hidden Objects: Object Permanence in 6- and 8-Month-Old Infants. Cognition, 23, 21-41. Baillargeon, R., Spelke, E.S. Wasserman, S. (1985). Object Permanence in Five-Month-Old Infants. Cognition, 20, 191-208. Bogartz, R.S., Shinskey, J.L. Speaker, C.J. (1997). Interpreting Infant Looking: The Event Set x Event Set Design. Developmental Psychology, 33, 408-422. Bower, T.G.R. Wishart, J.G. (1972). The Effects of Motor Skill on Object Permanence. Cognition, 1, 165-172. Bower, T.G.R. (1966). The Visual World of Infants. Scientific American, 215, 80-92. Bower, T.G.R. (1967). The Development of Object Permanence: Some Studies of Existence Constancy. Perception Psychophysics, 2, 411-418. Bower, T.G.R., Broughton, J.M. Moore, M.K. (1971). Development of the Object Concept as Manifested in the Tracking Behaviour of Infants Between 7 and 20 Weeks of Age. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 11, 182-193.Developmental Science, 12, 670-679. Diamond, A. (1988). Abilities and neural mechanisms underlying AB performance. Child Development, 523-527.Evidence from Violation of Expectation Tasks with Test Trials Only. Cognition, 23, 167-198. Harris, P.L. (1987). The Development of Search. In P.Salapatek L.B.Cohen (Eds.) â€Å"Handbook ofInfant Perception. Vol. 2†. New York NY, Academic Press. Jackson, I. Sirois, S. (2009). Infant Cognition: Going Full Factorial with Pupil Dilation. Mehler, J. Dupoux, E. (1994). What Infants Know: The New Cognitive Science of Early Development. Oxford, Blackwell. Piaget, J. (1963). The Psychology of Intelligence. Totowa, New Jersey: Littlefield Adams. Piaget, J. (1977). The role of action in the development of thinking (pp. 17-42). Springer US. Rivera, S.M., Wakeley, A. Langer, J. (1999). The Drawbridge Phenomenon: Representational Reasoning or Perceptual Preference? Developmental Psychology, 35, 427-435. Schà ¶ner, G. Thelen, E. (2006). Using Dynamic Field Theory to Rethink Infant Habituation. Psychological Review, 113, 273-299. Wang, S-h., Baillargeon, R. Brueckner, L. (2004). Young Infants’ Reasoning About Hidden Objects:

Casino operations :: essays research papers

Pricing The Lakeside Casino Resort deals a lot with selling items as well as experiences. Every aspect of running the casino as well as all the other operations that keep the casino running has to be priced right and reasonable, from playing the casino games to ordering the food for the Wheelhouse Buffet. Casino Floor:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Every game on the casino floor has to be purchased from a dealer. A blackjack table alone costs between $1,500 to $4,000 dollars, and on the floor there are 8 tables. Other games such as Three Card Poker and Let it Ride cost around $2,000 and the big tables such as roulette and craps cost $5,000 with the casino having 2 of each. All in total, the casino floor tables cost the casino $24,000. An investment that we think would help in our pricing for the casino floor would be reversible table covers, where a game can be changed to fit the popularity of the gamblers. This would cut the costs of the casino tables by a significant margin. Another big item on the casino floor is the slot machines. These are a huge revenue maker; each slot machine will bring in hundreds of dollars. A slot machine cost ranges from $1,000 to $3,000 and the casino floor has hundreds or slot machines spread around the casino in strategic locations. The slots machines vary in price from$10, $5 , $2, $1, 25 cents 5 cents to 1 cent. Bar:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Located in the casino is a bar. This bar can generate good revenue for the whole operation if the pricing is right. Drinks range from beer and wine to whiskey and vodka. Drink prices vary from $1.50 to $5 depending on the amount of alcohol content. How to Make the Money:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The pricing of the casino has to be elevated in different levels for the costumers. Each gaming table has different prices to play and to have payback. The object is to get more people on the high price tables to if they lose you get more money. The demand for the high price tables is less then the lower priced gaming options, but more money is generated from the higher gaming options because more money is played with.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pricing for other operations are obtained accordingly to the demand for each product or service. The Wheelhouse Buffet is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each meal is set at a different price

Themes of Violence and Conflict are Central to Romeo and Juliet by Shak

Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare who was born in 1564 and died in 1616, during his time he wrote many plays which were prolific including Macbeth, Othello and The Tempest. Theatre in Elizabethan times was marvellous entertainment. Plays would be performed almost anywhere, the theatres were new and extremely popular places for people to meet up socialise. All sorts of people went to watch plays, from the poorest people to the richest. The poor people would stand at the front while the richest would sit down and watch from a more comfortable place. During 1592-93, Shakespeare wrote long poems instead of plays as the theatres were closed due to the plague. The people in this time were very religious and wouldn?t have allowed love stories or anything other than violence and conflict, this is why Romeo and Juliet is superseded with much violence and conflict which covers the love story in Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet violence and conflict are very important as a result of the fact that two families in this play dislike each other and are feuding. This causes much friction in the play leading to a huge amount of violence and conflict. A prologue is an introduction or foreword which is used to prepare the audience for the violence and conflict in the play. This is done when it states: ?Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean? this informs the audience that a high class family?s blood is spilt by another high class citizen. Another part of the prologue states: ?A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, ?Doth with their death bury their parents? strife.? This explains to the audience that two lovers kill themselves and when they die they end their parent?s trouble. Throughout Act 1, S... ...s is shown when she says: ?Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.? I think Shakespeare made his play violent because in those times people were very religious and they wouldn?t have watched his plays if they wasn?t violent. This is why he couldn?t write Romeo and Juliet as just a love story as that wouldn?t have been allowed in those times, therefore he covered up the love in the play with violence and conflict. The violence in the play has the effect of turning it into a tragedy due to the amount of conflict and the death of Romeo and Juliet. It also creates the image of violence being unfair because of the deaths of so many in the play and the tragic end of the two lovers. The violence in the play has the effect of exciting the audience, causing them to worry and think about what will happen to Romeo and Juliet.

The Radio: Past and Present :: Expository Essays Research Papers

The Radio: Past and Present â€Å"He shoots!!! He scores!!!† these are famous words that Foster Hewitt made famous broadcasting a hockey game on the radio (â€Å"The Early Years†). It was words like these that the public became used to because there was no television. The radio served as the first medium to hear things live as they happened. This gave sport fans the opportunity to sit down and tune into a game anytime they like. The radio started off big and then took a dramatic fall due to the introduction of the television. However, radio found new ways to attract the public. Radio broadcasting was introduced to the public in the early 1920s (Potter 226). There was only one type of broadcast protocol in the 1920’s and 30’s being AM radio(The Early Years). In 1921 there were only five AM radio stations, and only about 1% of all households in this country had a receiver (Potter 226). A receiver was basically another name for a radio because at this time radios were very expensive and there were not enough radio stations to make the system work. However, in 1923 there were over 500 stations to pop up which in turn led to increased sales of receivers to the general public (Potter 226). With the popping up of more radio stations the more receivers were being bought which meant that many people in the public were tuning into these various radio stations for information and entertainment. Radio was on the rise and it seemed that there was nothing slowing it down. Radio was at the top of its game during the 1930’s and 1940’s (Potter 226). In 1930 50% of all households had at least one radio, and by 1947 this had increased to 93% (Potter 226). Bye 1936, there was an average of one receiver per household, and in ten years, this had doubled (Potter 226). Sports fans loved the radio because not only could they hear live broadcast but if they missed the game they could get stats all day long. There was only one catch to sports fans listening to games on the radio. Some radio stations did not have enough money to broadcast the games live so they would have a telegraph operator transmit information back to the studio where sounds such as crowd noise, the crack of the bat, and other sounds of that nature were being generated while the game was being played elsewhere (â€Å"Going, Going, Gone!)).

Aqa as Philosophy Revision Notes †Reason and Experience Essay

Knowledge and Belief †¢ People can believe things that aren’t true. †¢ For you to know something, it must be true and you must believe it. †¢ Beliefs can be true or false. †¢ Beliefs can accidentally be true, but it isn’t knowledge. Types of Knowledge †¢ Analytic – true by definition – â€Å"Squares have 4 sides†. †¢ Synthetic – not analytic, true or false in the way the word is – â€Å"Ripe tomatoes are red†. †¢ A priori – doesn’t require sense experience to know – â€Å"all bachelors are unmarried†. †¢ A posteriori – can be established through sense experience – â€Å"Snow is white†. All Analytic propositions are known a priori. This doesn’t mean that all a priori propositions are analytic. The main question is â€Å"Are all synthetic propositions a posteriori? † i. e; do we have some knowledge that doesn’t come from sense experience? It is this question that forms the debate between rationalism and empiricism. Rationalism vs. Empiricism †¢ Main dividing questions are: â€Å"What are the sources of knowledge? †, â€Å"How do we acquire it? †, â€Å"How do we get concepts? †. †¢ Rationalism gives an important role to reason. †¢ Empiricism gives an important role to the senses. †¢ Why can’t we use both in acquiring knowledge? Rationalism. †¢ Rationalism claims that we can have synthetic a priori knowledge of the external world. Empiricism denies this. †¢ Rationalists argue that it’s possible for us to know some synthetic propositions about the world outside our own minds, e. g. Maths and morality. Empiricists argue that it is not. †¢ Both rationalists and empiricists accept that we naturally have certain thoughts and feelings inside our minds. Empiricism †¢ An advantage of empiricism is that it allows us to quickly see how we ascertain our knowledge – through our senses by perceiving how the world is, which is a causal process – it requires no mental reasoning. †¢ Empiricists also claim that this is how we acquire our concepts – through our senses. †¢ Once we understand the acquired concepts, we gain analytic knowledge. If we have knowledge that doesn’t come from sense experience – how do we get this knowledge? Rationalists argue that we either gain this knowledge from ‘rational intuition’ or ‘insight’, which allows us to gain this knowledge intellectually, or we just know these truths innately as part of our rational nature. Rationalists may also argue that some, or even all of our concepts are innate of come from rational insight. Do All Ideas Derive From Sense Experience? John Locke – Mind as a ‘Tabula Rasa’ †¢ Locke argues that all ideas derive from sense experience. †¢ He says that the mind at birth is a ‘tabula rasa’ – a blank slate that gets filled up with ideas from the senses. †¢ He refutes the claim of ‘innate ideas’. †¢ Ideas can either be part of a proposition: â€Å"He had the idea that it would be fun to take the day off†; or they can be concepts: â€Å"the idea of yellow†. †¢ Locke says that all our concepts derive from sense experience, and that we have no knowledge prior to sense experience. From Locke’s definition of ‘innate idea’, it follows that everyone with a mind should have the same ideas. However, there is no truth that every person (including people lacking reasoning skills) can assent and agree to. So perhaps, with Locke’s definition, innate ideas are ones that we known as soon as we gain the use of reason. Locke refutes this, saying that we aren’t lacking reason but the knowledge of ideas. For example, a child can’t know that â€Å"4 + 5 = 9† until the child can count up to 9 and has the idea of equality. It is the same thing as knowing that an apple is not a stick – it’s not a development of reason, just the gaining of knowledge of ideas. So therefore, if we must first acquire the concepts involved (through sense experience), the proposition cannot be innate, as no proposition is innate unless the concepts used are innate. Locke argues that the mind has no concepts from birth, and so no truths or concepts can be innate. A Different definition of ‘innate idea’ †¢ Locke’s definition and argument against innate ideas hasn’t been criticized †¢ People who believe in innate ideas don’t accept Locke’s definition †¢ Nativists maintain the view that innate ideas are those which cannot be gained from experience †¢ Nativists tend to argue on how concepts or knowledge can’t be acquired from sense experience †¢ Because we don’t know all concepts from birth, there is some point when we become aware of our concepts †¢ Rationalists argue that experience triggers our awareness of our innate concepts. Experience as a ‘Trigger’ †¢ Children begin to use certain ideas at certain time, and their capacities develop, so why can’t their concepts and knowledge also develop? †¢ Children begin to use certain ideas at certain times †¢ Experience still plays a role – a child must be exposed to the relevant stimuli for the knowledge to emerge, e. g.language. †¢ An idea is innate if it cannot be derived or justified by sense experience. Empiricists on Arguing Concepts John Locke 1. The senses let in ideas 2. These ideas furnish an ‘empty cabinet’ 3. The mind grows familiar with these ideas and they’re lodged in one’s memory 4. The mind then abstracts them, and learns general names for them 5. The mind then has ideas and the language by which it can describe them †¢ However, what does it mean to ‘let in ideas’? †¢ We contrast ideas with sensations, e. g. the sensation of yellow isn’t the same as the concept of yellow †¢ Locke fails to make this distinction David Hume †¢ Hume believes that we are directly aware of ‘perceptions’ †¢ Perceptions are then divided into ‘impressions’ and ‘ideas’ †¢ Both Locke and Hume divide impressions into ‘impressions of sensation’ and ‘impressions of reflection’ †¢ Impressions of sensation come from our sense data and that which we directly perceive †¢ Impressions of reflection derive from the experience of our mind, such as feeling emotions. †¢ Hume says that ideas are ‘faint copies’ of impressions †¢ Therefore, there are ideas of sensation (e. g. the idea of red) and ideas of reflection (e. g. the feeling of sadness, happiness) †¢ Concepts are a type of idea. †¢ Hume’s theory of how we acquire ideas (from copying them from impressions) is a theory of how we acquire concepts) †¢ Locke and Hume both have slightly different versions of how we acquire ideas with which we can think †¢ We start with experiences of the physical world which we get from sense data and experiences of our mind †¢ For Locke, this gives us ideas once we employ our memory to reflect on these experiences †¢ According to Locke, this makes it sound that the remembered experiences are the ideas with which we think †¢ Hume corrects this, and says that we remember and think with the copies of the sensory impressions. Simple and complex concepts †¢ A complex idea is just an idea made up of several different ideas, e. g. a complex idea (a dog) is made up of simple ideas like shape, colour and smell. †¢ This complex idea has a complex impression †¢ We can therefore form complex ideas by abstraction. †¢ As an objection, rationalism raises the question of where do non-empirical ideas come from? †¢ Empiricism is appealing, as we seem to intuitively trust our senses and it easily answers such questions. †¢ However, there are complex ideas that correspond to nothing from our sense experience, e. g. unicorns or God. †¢ So do all ideas derive from sense experience? †¢ Empiricists argue that these complex ideas are made up from simple ideas, which are copies of impressions (e. g. a unicorn is the simple concepts of a horse, a horn, and the colour white, and combined together they give us a unicorn) †¢ Hume and Locke argue that when creating complex ideas, one can only work with the materials that our impressions provide – simple ideas †¢ Complex ideas are no more than altering or abstracting these simple ideas †¢ Therefore, empiricists answer this rationalist objection So Are There Innate Concepts? †¢ What would an empiricists’ analysis of complex concepts like self, causality, substance, etc.be? †¢ These concepts must either be innate, or reached using a priori reasoning †¢ Hume accepts that these complex concepts cannot be derived from experience †¢ However, he states that each of these concepts has no application †¢ These concepts are confused, and we should always use concepts that can be derived from experience †¢ For example, we don’t experience our ‘self’, we experience a changing array of thoughts and feelings. †¢ To come up with the idea of ‘self’, we’ve confused similarity with identity †¢ We do the same with the idea of a physical object †¢ A physical object exists independently of experience, existing in 3d space. †¢ But can experience show us something that exists independently of experience? †¢ If I look at a desk, look away, and then look back again, the desk must have existed when I wasn’t looking at it. †¢ I can’t know that my experience was of the same desk, only that the experiences are similar †¢ When coming up with the concept of a physical object that exists independently of experience, I confuse similarity with identity. †¢ Hume concludes that these concepts are incoherent confusions †¢ This can be objected though †¢ This makes most of our common-sense understand and analysis of the  world incorrect – we know that our concepts are coherent. †¢ Empiricism now seems to challenging to accept, as it makes our concepts ‘illusory’. †¢ The fact that we cannot derive the aforementioned from experience shows that they are innate †¢ Empiricists therefore have a flawed argument – explaining our most abstract concepts is an argument that these concepts are not derived from experience. †¢ Does this therefore mean that they’re innate or arrived at through rational intuition? †¢ One reason to think they’re innate is that children use these concepts before they develop rational intuition. †¢ Rationalists therefore argue that experience is the trigger for the concept Does all knowledge about what exists rest on sense experience? Hume’s Fork †¢ We can have knowledge of two sorts of things: ‘Relations between ideas’, and ‘matters of fact’ †¢ Relations of ideas are propositions like ‘all sons have fathers’ †¢ Hume argue that all a priori knowledge must be analytic, and all knowledge of synthetic propositions must be a posteriori †¢ Anything that is not true by definition (‘matters of fact’) must be learned through the senses †¢ Hume’s ‘matters of fact’ are essentially analytic truths. Matters of Fact †¢ Hume says that the foundation of knowledge of matters of fact is what we experience here and now, or what we can remember †¢ All our knowledge that goes beyond the aforementioned rests on casual inference †¢ For example, if I receive a letter from a friend with a French postcard on it, I’ll believe that my friend is in France. †¢ I know this because I infer from post mark to place †¢ I think that where something is posted causes it to have a postmark from that place. †¢ If the letter was posted by my friend, I believe that he is in France. †¢ I ‘know’ this because I rely on past experiences. †¢ I don’t work out what causes what by thinking about it †¢ It is only our experience of effects and causes that brings us to infer what cause has what effect. †¢ Hume denies that this is ‘proof’ †¢ He says that knowledge of matters of fact, beyond what we’re experience here and now relies on induction and reasoning about probability. Induction and Deduction †¢ The terms relate to a type of argument †¢ Inductive is where the conclusion is not logically entailed by its premises, but supported by them †¢ If the premises are true, the conclusion is likely to be true. †¢ The French letter example is an example of inductive reasoning. †¢ A Deductive argument is an argument whose conclusion is logically entailed by its premises †¢ If the premises are true, the conclusion cannot be false †¢ E. g. Premise 1: Socrates is a man; Premise 2: All men are mortal; Conclusion: Socrates is mortal. Using a priori intuition and demonstration to establish claims of what exists †¢ Rationalists argue against Hume, saying that some claims about what exists can be grounded on a priori intuition. †¢ A priori demonstration, or deduction, is deduction that uses a priori premises †¢ Rational intuition is the view that you can discover the truth of a claim by thinking about it  Descartes †¢ Descartes says that we can establish the existence of the mind, the physical world and God through a priori reasoning. †¢ He attacks sense experience, and how they can deceive us †¢ We can’t tell if we’re being deceived by an evil demon through our senses, as what we are experiencing will be false †¢ We can establish that we think, and therefore we exist, even if our senses do deceive us (as we don’t need our senses to know our mind exists) †¢ This conclusion of thinking and doubting that we exist was gotten to by pure reasoning. †¢ He also establishes that the mind can exist from the body. †¢ Descartes says we don’t know what causes these experiences †¢ It could be an evil demon, God, or the physics world exists exactly how we perceive it. †¢ If it was God, it would mean he was a deceiver as we have a very strong tendency to trust our senses †¢ If it was a demon, God must have created this demon to deceive us, and because God is perfect by definition, this would mean God isn’t a deceiver, and so he can’t have made a demon – so there must be some kind of a real world †¢ Through a priori intuition and reasoning, Descartes says that the external world must exist, because God exists, and he would not deceive us. Conceptual Schemes and Their Philosophical Implications †¢ Humans don’t all have the same concepts †¢ There are two distinguishable elements to our experience: the data of the senses, and how this data’s interpreted by our concepts †¢ By the latter, it implies that different people would impose different conceptual scheme if they have different concepts. †¢ Conceptual relativism claims that because our conceptual scheme affect how people experience and understand reality, people with different conceptual schemes have different realities. An Implication: Conceptual relativism. †¢ We assume people have different ‘realities’ because we can’t translate their to ours †¢ It assumes language ‘constructs’ reality to say reality is relative to our conceptual schemes †¢ It would mean that reality is dependant on language, which isn’t true – we express our realities by language †¢ A proposition in one conceptual scheme can be true without needing to be express in another set of scheme. †¢ This means that there isn’t one set of scheme with how the world works †¢ An objection is that people argue that the relation between experience anc conceptual schemes doesn’t make sense. †¢ Benjamin Whorf says that languages organize our experience of the world †¢ This is like trying to organize a wardrobe itself and not the clothes in it †¢ If a conceptual scheme organizes our experience, then our experience must be comprised of individual experiences †¢ Conceptual scheme all have a set of experiences in common †¢ We can pick out individual experiences like smelling a flower, feeling cold, etc. †¢ Any conceptual scheme with these sorts of experiences will end up similar to our own, despite the concepts one hold and their language, and so translation between two different conceptual schemes will be possible. †¢ There may be small parts that can’t be translated, but this only leads to a very mild form of conceptual relativism. †¢ We can’t necessarily combine conceptual scheme †¢ An example is that we can have more or less colours in our vocabulary, and so can describe things in different ways. †¢ The Greeks thought that there was only one colour – bronze, and that everything else was a different shade of bronze. †¢ This doesn’t mean they saw everything in what we call ‘bronze’, it’s just how they described their experiences. †¢ We can therefore only state things depending on the concepts we have.

Entrepreunership of Indra Nooyi Essay

INTRODUCTION Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi(born 28 october 1956) is an Indian-American businesswoman who is currently the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo which is the world’s second largest food and beverage business in terms of net revenue. She is one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women as ranked by Forbes magazine. In 2014, she was ranked 13 in the list of Forbes World’s 100 most powerful women. Early life and career Nooyi was born to a Tamil Family in Madras (presently Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India. She was educated at Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Madras. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from Madras Christian College in 1974 and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976. Beginning her career in India, Nooyi held product manager positions at Johnson & Johnson and textile firm MetturBeardsell. She was admitted to Yale School of Management in 1978 and earned a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management. While at Yale, she completed her summer internship with Booz Allen Hamilton. Graduating in 1980, Nooyi joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and then held strategy positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri. PepsiCo executive Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and was named president and CFO in 2001. Nooyi has directed the company’s global strategy for more than a decade and led PepsiCo’s restructuring, including the 1997 divestiture of its restaurants into Tricon, now known as Yum! Brands.Nooyi also took the lead in the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998, and merger with Quaker Oats Company, which also brought Gatorade to PepsiCo. In 2006 she became the fifth CEO in PepsiCo’s 44-year history. According to BusinessWeek, since she started as CFO in 2000, the company’s annual revenues have risen 72%, while net profit more than doubled, to $5.6 billion in 2006. Nooyi was named on Wall Street Journal’s list of 50 women to watch in 2007 and 2008, and was listed among  Time’s 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2007 and 2008. Forbes named her the #3 most powerful woman in 2008. In 2014, she was ranked #13 by Forbes.Fortune ranked her the #1 most powerful woman in busi ness in 2009 and 2010. On the 7th of October 2010 Fortune magazine ranked her the 6th most powerful woman in the world. INDRA NOOYI’S CHARACTERISTICS AS AN ENTREPRENEUR â ¦ HARDWORKING- Nooyi recommends not sitting on your laurels just because you have attained a high rank in the professional sphere. A tireless worker herself, she gets only 5 hours of sleep a night, and continuously educates herself, re-evaluating her decisions and ensuring that she is keeping the best interest of the company and its employees in mind. To her, her employees are like an extended family, and she ensures that their needs and concerns are addressed so as to ensure the overall running efficiency of the company. The formal and impersonal atmosphere at PepsiCo, therefore, is a friendly one where her receptionist is known to have fielded calls from her daughter regarding home work and television privileges. â ¦ PRUDENCE (WISE)- Nooyi said she tries to ascribe positive intent to everything people do or say. â€Å"When you do that it’s so much better to deal with people,† Nooyi said. â€Å"Does that mean I give people more rope than I need to? Yeah, but I’m very comfortable with it.† In this way, she aims to cultivate trusting relationships with both colleagues and direct reports, and to focus on developing executive talent. It’s a style that encourages entrepreneurial thinking across the company, says Reinemund, her predecessor and another influential mentor. â ¦ PLANNING AND ORGANIZING- Nooyi’s strategic measures to tackle the slow-down in the beverages and snack food industry included a productivity improvement program, the benefits of which were expected to the tune of US$ 1.2 billion over the next three years  beginning 2009. Other measures under her leadership included aggressive expansion into the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, China, When Nooyi was SVP, the strategic measures that she planned and implemented resulted in a growth in PepsiCo’s sales and profits. â ¦ INNOVATION She implemented a number of measures to improve the sustainability of the company’s operations and image by focusing on improvements in the health implications of PepsiCo products. Measures such as removing trans-fats from PepsiCo snacks, product innovations in the Quaker Oats brand to come out with a range of consumer perceived healthy snacks, categorization of its snacks into three categories named fun for you, good for you, and better for you were undertaken under her leadership. â ¦ ACHIEVEMENT AND MOTIVATION Forbes magazine ranked Nooyi fourth on the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 lists of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Fortune magazine has named Nooyi number one on its annual ranking of Most Powerful Women in business for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 2008, Nooyi was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report. In 2008, she was elected to the Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences â ¦ RISK TAKING Pepsi faces rising production costs, lackluster U.S. sales, and attacks on its core snack and soda products from both competitors and health-conscious critics. As the company’s head and, since May, its chairman, Nooyi is taking on Pepsi’s challenges. And Nooyi, who formally took the CEO reins in October 2006, is giving Pepsi’s employees and shareholders good reason to ride her train — a powerful locomotive that has driven the company’s stock up 22% in the 12 months through Dec. 4, near a 52-week high. In May, the company hiked its dividend 25% and boosted its share buyback goal to $4.3 billion from  $3.3 billion. Revenue is expected to rise more than 10% this year. BARRIERS TO INDRA NOOYI:- â ¦ PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS Nooyi used to announce a specific profit target that the company will gain. But the company was unable to gain that much profit. So this annoyed the investors. During her tenure pepsi has often failed to hit her statuted profit target, which investor consider an unforgivable scene. â ¦ ECONOMIC FACTORS- Capital requirements are low for taking over a franchise, and profit margins are stratospheric. Nooyi’s plan looked plausible, and investors seemed willing to give it a chance; they pushed the stock down only incrementally despite the surprisingly downbeat profit forecast. Now she absolutely must execute the plan against strong and merciless competitors in a volatile economic environment. â ¦ COMPETITIVE FACTOR- The company is getting beaten up in its flagship product category, drinks, in the world’s largest market, North America. The soda pop planets shifted in their orbits last year when Pepsi-Cola was displaced as America’s eternal No. 2 carbonated soft drink, Coca-Cola was at No. 1; the new No. 2 is Diet Coke. That reordering is especially distressing to investors because there is scarcely a more beautiful business in the world than producing branded soft drink concentrate. â ¦ PERSONALITY FACTORS- Irate investors have been calling for Pepsi to sell off its snack food business or for Nooyi to step down, or at least announce a likely successor. She did none of that at the presentation. Instead, by outlining a plan that will take two years to pay off, she showed that she has the board’s support. But if that plan doesn’t show clear signs of working before year-end, the board’s support could evaporate. That’s why the next several months are make-or-break for her.

The Blue Sword CHAPTER THIRTEEN

It was two days later when, as the morning sun shone down on them, Harry first saw Istan again; and she altered their course a little to the north, for it was not the town she was aiming for, but Jack Dedham's garrison. She prayed to anything that might be listening that he would be there, not off on some diplomatic sortie or border-beating. She could not imagine trying to explain her errand to anyone else; she did not think Jack would conclude that she was mad. She did think that anyone else – even Dickie; especially Dickie – would. But even if Jack were at the fort, and believed her story, would he help her? She didn't know, and didn't dare make guesses. But she and Terim and Senay, even with Senay's father's reinforcements, would not be very effective by themselves. Rather more effective than I would have been by myself, though, she thought. The first evening, after Senay and Terim had joined her, and after the animals were settled and the other two human beings were asleep, Harry had cut herself a long straight slender branch from a tree, and stripped it with the short knife she kept in one boot. When they set out that evening she tied it lengthwise to Sungold's saddle, so it rubbed against her right leg as she rode, but at least it did not threaten either of her companions, who rode close at her sides. They eyed it, but said nothing. When she first recognized Istan looming out of the dawn light at them, she paused, took out her knife again, and deliberately ripped several inches of hem from her white tunic, unlashed her branch, and tied the raveling bit of cloth to one end of it. She tucked the other end just under one leg, and held it upright with one hand. â€Å"It is a sign that we come in peace,† she explained, a little sheepishly, to her friends; their faces cleared, and they nodded. It was still very early. The town was silent as they skirted it; nothing, not even a dog, challenged them as they rode toward the fort. Harry found herself watching out of the corners of her eyes, looking for any odd little wisps of fog that might be following them. The dogs ought to bark. She didn't see any fog. She didn't know if either of her companions was a fog-rouser; and she knew only too well that she did not know what she herself was capable of. They rode up to the closed gate of the fort, the horses' hooves making small thunks in the sandy ground, kicking up small puffs of grit; she thought of the fourposter pony, who was no doubt drowsing in his stall now, dreaming of hay. Harry looked at the fort gate in surprise; as she remembered, and she was reasonably sure that she remembered correctly, the gate was opened at dawn, with reveille, and stayed open till taps at sunset. The gate, wooden and iron-barred, in a wall of dull yellow brick, was higher than her head as she sat on Sungold, looking up; and its frame was higher yet. They rode right up to it, and no one hailed them; and they stood in front of it, at a loss, their shadows nodding bemusedly at them from the grey wood before them and Harry's little flag limp at the end of its pole. Narknon went up to the gate and sniffed it. Harry had never thought of the possibility of not being able to get inside the fort in the first place. She rode up next to the gate and hammered on it with her fist. As her flesh struck the solid barrier it sent a tingle up her arm, and a murmur of kelar at the base of her skull told her that she could walk through this wall if she had to, to pursue her purpose. In that instant she realized exactly how Corlath had stolen her from the bedroom that at present was not so far from where Sungold stood; and she understood as well that the kelar must see some use in her errand at the Outlander fort to back her so strongly; and for that she did not know whether to be glad or sorry or fearful. And if fearful, for the sake of whom? Her new people – or her old friends? And she had a quiver of wry sympathy for how the Hill-king must have felt, walking up the Residency stairs in the middle of the night; and then she tipped her head back to stare at the Outlander wall, and touched her calf to her Hill horse's side, to move him away from that wall. â€Å"Since when is this gate closed during daylight?† she shouted; and Homelander speech tasted strange in her mouth, and she wondered if she spoke the words as a Hillwoman might. With her words, the spell, whatever spell it might be, was broken; and the three Hill riders suddenly blinked, as if the sun had grown brighter; and a small panel shot back, beside the gate and above their heads; and a man's face glared down. â€Å"Where did you come from, Hillman, and what do you want of us?† He looked without pleasure at the white rag. â€Å"We came from the Hills,† Harry said, grinning, â€Å"but I am no Hillman; and we would like speech with Colonel Dedham.† The man scowled at her. She suspected that he did not like her knowing Jack's name. â€Å"He does not speak to Hillfolk – or those who ride like Hillfolk,† he added disagreeably. By now there were several faces peering over the wall at them; Harry did not recognize any of them, and found this strange, for she had known at least by sight nearly all of Dedham's men. She had not been gone for so many months that it seemed likely the entire complement of the fort could have changed. She squinted up at them, wondering if her eyes or her memory was playing her tricks. She frowned at her interlocutor's tone. â€Å"You could bear a message to him, then,† she said, trying to decide if it was worth the possibility of some kind of uproar if she said her name. â€Å"Hillfolk – † began the man at the window, and his tone was not encouraging. â€Å"Oh, Bill, for the love of God, the new orders say nothing about rudeness,† said one of the faces at the fence. â€Å"If you won't carry a message as requested, I will – and I'll be sure to mention why an off-duty man had to do it.† â€Å"Tom?† said Harry hesitantly. â€Å"Is that Tom Lloyd?† There was a tense and breathless silence, and the man at the open panel hissed something that sounded like â€Å"witchcraft.† The voice from the fence came again, slowly but clearly: â€Å"This is Tom Lloyd, but you have the advantage of me.† â€Å"True enough,† said Harry dryly, and shook back her hood and looked up at him. â€Å"We danced together, some months ago: my brother, Di – Richard, collected favors from all his tall friends to dance with his large sister.† â€Å"Harry – † said Tom, and leaned over the fence, his shoulders outlined against the light, his face and hands as pale as the desert sand. â€Å"Harry?† â€Å"Yes,† said Harry, shaken at how strange he looked to her, that she had not recognized him before he spoke. â€Å"I need to talk to Colonel Dedham. Is he here?† Harry's heart was in her mouth. â€Å"Yes, he is: reading a six-months-old newspaper from Home over a cup of coffee right now, I'd say.† Tom sounded dazed. â€Å"Bill, you wretch, open the gate. It's Harry Crewe.† Harry's legs were tight on Sungold's sides, and the big horse threw his head up and shivered. â€Å"He don't look like Harry Crewe,† Bill said suddenly. â€Å"And what about the two with him – her? And that funny-colored leopard?† â€Å"They're my friends,† said Harry angrily. â€Å"Either open the gate or at least take my message.† â€Å"I can't leave my post – another man'll have to take the word. I won't open the gate to Hillfolk. It's Hillfolk it's closed for. Tom's too easy. How do I know you're Harry Crewe? You look like a bloody Darian, and you ride like one, and you can't even talk right.† Harry's pulse began to bang in her ears. â€Å"For pity's sake – â€Å" â€Å"Not you, Tom,† said Bill; â€Å"we already know as how you're off duty. Get another man what's on.† â€Å"Don't bother,† said Harry, between her teeth; â€Å"I'll take the message myself. I know where Jack's quarters are.† She dropped her pole in the dust, and, conscious she was doing a supremely stupid thing, she brought Sungold a few more dancing steps away from the gate, turned him, and set him at it. He went up and over with a terrific heave of his hindquarters, and Harry had reason to be grateful for the perfect fit of her saddle; but once in the air he seemed to float, and look around, and he came down as lightly as a blown leaf. He trotted two steps and halted, while Harry tried to look calm and lofty and as though she had known what she was doing all the time. The leap was over in a few seconds, and no one had expected anything so incredible, even from a Hillman; now men were shouting, and there was a crowd all around her. She thought no one would shoot her out of hand, but she wasn't quite sure, so she waited, instead of going in search of Jack Dedham as she had threatened. Sungold stretched his neck out and shook himself. Narknon flowed over the gate behind them – there was a howl of fear and wrath from Bill – and the cat trotted to Sungold and crouched under his belly. But she did not have to look for Jack after all, because the row at the gate brought him at a run scant seconds after Sungold's leap. He rounded the narrow corner of some dark building opposite the place where Sungold stood. The horse lifted first one foot and then another, unaccustomed to such noisy reckless human beings, but still obedient to his rider's wishes. He replaced each foot in just the print it had left. Jack came to a halt, barely avoiding running into them. Sungold pitched his ears toward the balding grey-haired Outlander who stood now, stock still, staring: his eyes traveled from the big chestnut horse down to the laconic cat, up to the horse's rider, and his jaw visibly dropped. Harry's hood was still back on her shoulders, and her bright hair flamed in the young sunlight; he recognized her immediately, although he had never seen such an expression on her face before. A moment passed while he could think of nothing; then he strode forward with a cry of â€Å"Harry!† and raised his arms, and she, a young girl again with a young girl's face, ungracefully tumbled off her horse and into them. He thumped her on the back, as he might have one of his own men back from an impossible mission and long since given up for lost; and then he kissed her heartily on the mouth, which he would not have done to any of his own men; and Harry hugged him around the neck, and then, embarrassed, tried to back away. He held her shoulders a minute longer and stared at her; they were much of a height, and Tom Lloyd, looking wistfully on, found himself thinking that they looked very much alike, for all of the girl's yellow hair and Hill clothing; and he realized, without putting any of it into words, that the girl he had danced with months ago, and thought about as he blacked his boots, and lost sleep over when she disappeared, was gone forever. Harry drew a hasty sleeve across her eyes; and then Tom, emboldened by his commander's behavior, hugged her too, but backed away without meeting her eyes; and Harry, even preoccupied as she was, was briefly puzzled by Tom's air of farewell, and she guessed something of what her brother had never told her. The whole fort was aroused; there were dozens of men standing around staring, and asking questions of one another; some were in uniform, and some looked like they had fallen out of bed a minute before; a few carried rifles and were looking around wildly. A few of those rifles were pointed at Narknon, but the cat had sense enough not to move, or even yawn and display her dangerous-looking fangs. The Outlanders asked each other questions, and there was a lot of shrugging; but while their colonel's evident delight in their sudden Hill visitor allayed any immediate fears they might have, Harry thought they looked tense and wary, as men may who live long under some strain. â€Å"What should I ask first?† said Jack. â€Å"Why are you here? Your horse tells me where you've been these months past – God, what an animal – but I am totally awestruck by the intelligence †¦ although, come to think of it, I don't seem to be surprised. Do you know that the entire station turned out to look for you when you vanished? Although I doubt in fact that you know anything of the sort; I flatter myself I searched as painstakingly as anyone, but what the Hills take, if they mean to keep it, they keep it, and I rather thought they meant to keep you. Everyone was sure the Hillfolk did have something to do with your evaporating like that – although it was more a superstition than a rational conclusion, as nary a trace of anything did we find; no rumors in the marketplace either. Amelia, poor lady, had well-bred hysterics, and Charles chewed his mustaches ragged, and Mrs. Peterson took her girls south to Ootang. And your brother stopped talkin g to everybody, and rode three horses to death – and he takes good care of his horses, usually, or I wouldn't have him here. I don't think he even noticed when Cassie Peterson left.† Harry blushed, and looked at her feet. â€Å"So you see, he does care – you've wondered, haven't you? He wasn't too fond of his commanding officer there for the weeks that it lasted, for I couldn't somehow work up the proper horror – oh, I was worried about you, but I was also †¦ envious.† He looked at her, smiling, wondering what her reaction would be to his words, wondering if he had said the right thing, knowing that the truth was not always its own excuse; knowing that his relief at seeing her made him talk too much and too freely – a reaction that had, often enough in the past, gotten him into trouble with his superior officers. And Harry looked back at him, and she smiled too, but she remembered the vertigo of the Outlander girl alone in a camp of the Hillfolk, surrounded by a people speaking a language she could not speak, whose hopes she did not understand, whose dreams she could not share. The people of the Hills had been her own people's foes for eighty years and more, for she was born and bred a Homelander; how could Jack – even Jack – speak of envy? Her smile froze, and her tunic napped against her back and hips, for she had, somehow, lost her sash, and she had hung Gonturan from Sungold's saddle, so as to look, she hoped, a little less like immediate war. Lost her sash. A Hillman would never lose his sash. What was she? Damalur-sol. Ha. She laid a hand on Sun-gold's shoulder, but when he turned his head to touch her with his nose she was not comforted, for he had lived all his life in the Hills. She wished bitterly that her brother had told her of Tom Lloyd, months ago. That was something she might have understood, and Tom was kind and honest. She swallowed and looked at Jack again, and he saw memory shining in her eyes, and he smiled sadly at her, and was sorry for any further pain his thoughtless words had given her. â€Å"Child,† he said quietly, â€Å"choices are always hard. But do you not think yours is already made?† Harry's fingers combed through her Hill horse's mane, and she said, â€Å"There never was a choice. I ride the only way open to me, and yet often and again it seems to me I am dangerously unfit for it.† She laughed a little and shakily. â€Å"It seems to me further that it is very odd that fate should lay so careful a trail and spend so little time preparing the one that must follow it.† Jack nodded. â€Å"It is not the sort of thing that is recorded in official histories, but I believe that such thoughts have come not infrequently to others – † he smiled faintly – â€Å"ensnared as you are.† Harry's hand dropped back to her side and she smiled again. â€Å"Colonel, I shall try not to take myself too seriously.† â€Å"And I shall try not to talk too much.† They grinned at each other, and knew that they were friends, and the knowledge was a relief and a pleasure and a hope to each of them, but for different reasons. Then Jack looked her over again, as if noticing the travel stains for the first time and said in a deliberately bright tone: â€Å"You look like you could use a bath †¦ My God, that sword: you're carrying a king's ransom casually across your pommel.† â€Å"Not casually,† said Harry somberly. â€Å"Questions later,† Jack said, â€Å"but I will hope that you will answer them. First food and rest, and then you will tell me a very long story, and it has to be the true one, although I don't promise to believe it.† â€Å"I am not quite alone, † said Harry, smiling again. â€Å"Will you let two friends of mine past your formidable gate as well?† â€Å"Not so formidable,† said Colonel Dedham. â€Å"I wish I'd arrived a minute earlier and seen that jump. I don't believe it.† â€Å"It's true, sir,† said Tom. â€Å"I believe it's true, I just don't believe it,† said Jack. â€Å"No doubt all of your story will be just as impossible. And just to start with, what is that?† he said, pointing at Narknon, who still had not moved. â€Å"She's a hunting-cat, a folstza. She adopted me soon after †¦ I left here.† Narknon, deeming the moment right, stood up slowly, and opened her big green eyes to their fullest extent, batted the long golden lashes once or twice at Jack, and began to pace toward him, while he gamely held his ground. Narknon paused a step away and started to purr, and Jack laughed uncertainly; whereupon the cat took the last step and rubbed her cheek against the back of his hand. Jack, with the look of a man who throws dice with the devil, petted her and Narknon redoubled the purr. â€Å"I think I'm being courted,† said Jack. â€Å"Narknon has an excellent sense of whose side it is most expedient to be on,† said Harry. â€Å"But – â€Å" â€Å"Yes, we will let your companions come in in the traditional fashion. Unbar the gate, there, Shipson, and be quick about it, before anything else comes over it. I don't like the new standing orders, and they obviously aren't much good besides.† Jack looked up from Narknon, who was now leaning her full weight against his legs and tapping her tail against the backs of his thighs, to gaze again at Sungold. â€Å"A real Hill horse. Can they all leap over Outlander forts before breakfast?† â€Å"No. Or they may, but most of their riders have more sense than to try it. Particularly after a journey such as we've had.† The excitement of seeing Jack again, and the reassurance of the warmth of his welcome, drained away from her, and she remembered that she was exhausted, and the sense of coming home to a place that was no longer home oppressed her further. â€Å"I'd like the bath and the food, and we all have to have sleep. But most of the story will have to wait; I'll tell you what I must, but †¦ we don't have much time.† â€Å"You are here for a purpose, and I can guess some of it. I'll try not to be stupid.† The gate opened, and Terim and Senay rode quietly through and stopped by Sungold's flank and dismounted. Harry introduced them, and they bowed, touching their fingers respectfully to their foreheads, but without the last flick outward of the fingers that indicates that the one addressed is of superior rank. When she said in Hill-speech, â€Å"And this is Colonel Dedham, whose aid we are here to seek,† she was pleased with the way her Outlander friend in his turn bowed and touched his fingers to his forehead, only glancing at her with mild inquiry. â€Å"I am sorry,† said Jack as he led the way to his quarters, â€Å"but I speak only a little of your Hill tongue. I must ask you to tell me what I need to hear in my own language, and apologize to your friends for the necessary rudeness of excluding them.† This was spoken in heavily accented but perfectly adequate Hill-speech, and Terim and Senay both smiled. â€Å"We understand the need for speed and clarity, and it would not have occurred to us to take offense,† said Terim, who had a king's son's swiftness for turning a diplomatic phrase; and Senay simply nodded. So Jack Dedham cleared off the table in the second of the two small rooms that were his, the table in question accustomed to duty as a dining-table and writing-desk, as well as a convenient surface to set any indeterminate object down on; and his batman brought breakfast for three. The three ate their way through it with enthusiasm, and the man, grinning, brought second breakfasts for three. â€Å"Make it four, Ted,† said Dedham. â€Å"I'm getting hungry again.† When they were finished, and Harry was staring into her teacup and realizing with uneasy chagrin that she'd rather be drinking malak, Jack filled his pipe and began to produce thick heavy clouds of smoke that crawled around the room and nosed into the corners. â€Å"Well?† he said. â€Å"Tell me in what fashion you have come to seek my aid.† Harry said, staring at the worn tips of her Hill boots, â€Å"The Northern army will be coming through the mountains †¦ soon. Very soon. Corlath's army is camped on the plain before the wide gap – the Bledfi Gap, we call it – the Gate of the North, you know, in the Horfel Mountains – â€Å" Jack said from a cloud of smoke: â€Å"The Gambor Pass, in the Ossander range. Yes.† â€Å"We want to plug the northwest leak, the little way through the mountains above Ihistan – where an undesirable trickle of Northern soldiers could come through and – â€Å" â€Å"And raze Istan, and go on to harass Corlath.† Harry nodded. â€Å"Not just harass; there are not many Hillfolk to fight.† â€Å"That explains, no doubt,† said Jack, â€Å"why there are only three of you – and a cat with long teeth – for the northwest leak, as you call it.† Harry smiled faintly. â€Å"It was almost one of me, alone.† â€Å"I would hazard, then, that you are not precisely here under Corlath's orders.† â€Å"Not exactly.† â€Å"Does he know where you are?† Harry thought about it, and said carefully, â€Å"I did not tell him where I was going before I left.† Her ribs missed the pressure of a sash. Dedham blinked a few times, slowly, and said, â€Å"I assume I am to conclude that he will be able to guess where you've gone. And these two poor fools decided to throw their lots in with an outlaw? I am impressed.† Harry was silent for a minute. For all her brave words to Jack at the fort gate, she felt that the path she had thought she was following had blurred and then lurched underfoot as soon as Sungold had jumped the wall. It was difficult for her now to remember who she was – damalur-sol and sashless – and why she was here, and where she was going; her thoughts ambled around in her head, tired and patternless. She remembered Luthe saying to her: â€Å"It is not an enviable position, being a bridge, especially a bridge with visions†; and she thought that in fact a nice clear vivid vision would be a great boon. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. â€Å"Corlath did not take at all kindly to Sir Charles that day, did he?† Jack smiled without humor. â€Å"Not at all kindly, no.† Harry scowled. â€Å"He's still cutting off his nose to spite his face, ignoring the northwest pass.† â€Å"Ritger's Gap,† said Jack. â€Å"He probably doesn't look at it that way, though. He came to us offering an alliance of mutual support, true, but he was doing us a favor by giving us the benefit of his spies' work in the north – which Sir Charles, in his less than infinite wisdom, chose to disbelieve. I would assume that your Corlath will now simply wipe out as many Northerners as he can, and what's left of his Hillfolk in the end will retreat to those eastern mountains of his. Whether or not the western plains are overrun with unchecked Northerners is not, finally, of great interest to him one way or another. Our decision not to help only means a few more divisions of the Northern army to harry them in their Hills: unfortunate but not of the first importance.† â€Å"If the Homeland got behind the attempt to throw back the Northerners – â€Å" â€Å"There was never any chance of that, my dear, believe me,† replied Jack. â€Å"You are attempting to be logical, I suspect, and logic has little to do with government, and nothing at all to do with military administration. â€Å"You are also still thinking like a Homelander – an Outlander, if you wish – for all you've learned to ride like a Hillman,† and his eyes settled on Gonturan, hanging by her belt over the back of Harry's chair. â€Å"You know Istan is here, and it seems like a waste to you that we should be obliterated without a chance; and you were also fortunately absent that day, and did not hear Sir Charles being insufferable. Sir Charles is a good man in many ways, but new things disconcert him. The idea of an alliance between Hill and Outlander is blasphemously new.† You are also still thinking like a Homelander – an Outlander, if you wish – for all you've learned to ride like a Hillman. The words hung before Harry's eyes as if sewn on a banner and then thrust into the ground at her feet as her standard. She looked at nothing as she said, â€Å"You are working up to telling me that there is nothing that can be done.† â€Å"No; but I am working up to telling you that there is no possibility of there being done what ought to be done – I agree with you, our, or at any rate my, country should get serious about the threat from the North. It is a real threat.† He rubbed his face with his hand, and looked momentarily weary. â€Å"I am glad you have put this chance, little as it is, in my hand. My orders, of course, forbid me to go skylarking off to engage the Northerners at Ritger's Gap or anywhere else – the official, illogical attitude is that this is a tribal matter, and if we stay quietly at home with our gates closed the wave will break and flow around us. I know this is nonsense, and so do a few of the men who've been here more than a few years. I've been brooding for months – off and on since Corlath's unexpected visit; I believed what he told us that his spies had brought back from the North – whether or not it's worth my pension to go try and do anything abou t it. I rather think it is, as we're sure to be killed if we stay at home and I'd rather be killed out doing something than have my throat slit in bed. You're just the excuse I've been looking for; it's been a bit hard to determine which dragon a solitary St. George should take on, when there seem to be dragons everywhere.† Harry looked at Jack, conscious of Terim and Senay at her elbow, and a furry shoulder pressed against her feet under the table. The sense of dislocation was almost a physical thing, like a stomachache or a sore throat; but Jack's words now eased the sore place a little. The bridge could stretch to cross this chasm, perhaps, after all. She was still alone and still scared, but for the first time since she had ridden away from Corlath's camp she felt that her errand was not necessarily a mad one; and so her conviction that she was doomed to it was therefore a little less terrifying. And perhaps it did not matter in what world she belonged if both worlds were marching in step. And now that Jack believed her, she could depend on him; for Harimad-sol was still laprun, and while she was glad of Terim and Senay, they looked up to her, and she didn't entirely like the sensation. The old friendship with Jack had taught her what kind of man he was, and he would not be embarrassingly awed by Harimad-sol and her legendary sword. The literal-minded pragmatism of the Outlander psyche had its uses. But as the weight of solitude eased, his words laid a new weight on her: Were her perceptions so wrong then? Was she in fact thinking like a Homelander – and had she, then, betrayed her new allegiance? She opened the palm of her right hand, and looked at the small white scar that lay across it. What did Corlath think of her desertion? Had Luthe's fears for her been correct, and had she not been able to see the right way when the ways divided before her? â€Å"Harry.† Jack reached across the table and pulled her right hand toward him. â€Å"What is that?† She closed her fingers till what she suddenly felt was her brand of Cain disappeared. â€Å"It's a †¦ ritual I went through. I'm a king's Rider.† â€Å"Good Lord. How the – excuse me – how did you manage that? Not that I ever doubted your sterling qualities, but I know something of that tradition – king's Riders are the, um, the elite †¦ â€Å" â€Å"Yes,† said Harry. Jack only looked at her, but her mouth went dry. She swallowed and said, â€Å"They thought it would be †¦ useful †¦ to have a damalur-sol again.† â€Å"Lady Hero,† said Jack. â€Å"Yes.† She swallowed again. â€Å"Cor – Corlath said that this war had no hope, and something like – something like a damalur-sol was a little like hope. I – I have seen Lady Aerin – do you know about the Water of Sight? – and so they think I must be someone important too.† Jack studied her as a botanist might study a new plant. â€Å"Blood calls to blood, evidently. Although Richard is the straightest arrow I've ever seen: maybe it only runs from mother to daughter.† Harry brought her head up sharply and stared at her old friend. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Surely you know,† Jack said, frowning. â€Å"Your great-grandmother – mother's mother's mother – was a Hillwoman; one of rank, I believe. That was before we'd gained a proper foothold here, or we were at least still struggling to keep what we'd got. It was a terrible scandal. I don't know much about it; it makes Richard quite green even to think about it. Young Dick turns green rather easily about some things: but some curious sense of honor compelled him to tell me, as his commanding officer, so that I could make allowances if he went off screaming into the Hills of his ancestors, I suppose. The blood taint that Fate has seen fit to hand him seems to prey on his mind.† Jack had been watching her closely as he rattled on, and broke off abruptly. â€Å"My dear, you must have known of this?† Harry sat still in her chair, where she was sure she would sit forever, gazing in amazement at the story Jack had just told her. She must have looked very queer, for Terim said to her anxiously, â€Å"Harimad-sol, what is wrong? You look as if you have seen your father's ghost. Has this man said aught of ill to you?† Harry roused and shook her head, which felt thick and heavy. â€Å"No; he has just told me something that bewilders me even as it makes all plain.† Senay said softly: â€Å"Sol, might we know what it is?† Harry tried to smile. â€Å"He has said that my mother's grandmother was a Hillwoman, and thus the blood of your Hills runs in my veins.† The two looked back at her with the sort of surprise and consternation she was sure was still plain on her own face. Terim said: â€Å"But we know you must be one of us, or the king's madness would not come to you, and everyone knows that it does: already there are tales told of Harimad-sol at the laprun trials. The Water of Sight shows you things, and Lady Aerin speaks to you, and your eyes turn yellow when you are held by some strong emotion. In fact, they are yellow now.† Harry laughed: a little laugh and a weak one, but still a laugh, and she said to Jack, â€Å"My friends are not the least surprised by this intelligence, for all that it shakes me to my soul and makes my heart beat too fast – with fear or joy I am not quite sure. They say they have known me for a Hillwoman all along.† â€Å"I've no doubt that's true,† Jack said dryly. â€Å"You may be sure Corlath would have made no Outlander his Rider, even if the Lady Aerin ordered him to.† â€Å"But why was I never told?† Harry mused, still trying to collect her thoughts together in one place so that she could look at them. Perhaps she was a better-constructed bridge than she had realized; and she thought of beams and girders, and almost laughed; how Outlanderish an image that was, to be sure. And as she labeled that bit of herself Outlander she then was free to label some other bit Damarian; and she felt a little more like herself all over, as though she were fitting into her skin a little more securely. She still was not sure what she was, but at least she need not be unhappy for not knowing: and now, perhaps, she had the missing pieces she needed to begin to learn. â€Å"I think,† Jack said slowly, â€Å"that I have an idea about that. I had assumed that you did know, but I remember now how Richard and I talked about you when you were to come out here – he seemed to think it would be bad for you in a particular way – † He frowned, trying to remember clearly. â€Å"You were evidently a little too, um, bohemian for him, and he obviously thought living in the land of your grandmother's mother was going to aggravate the tendency. But I never thought he would, er †¦ â€Å" â€Å"Protect me from myself by keeping me in ignorance?† Harry smiled ruefully. â€Å"Well, I didn't know, but I'm not surprised. Angry maybe – how dare he? – but not surprised. He takes the man's responsibility toward his frail female relations very seriously, does Dickie. Drat him. Where is my inestimable brother? Here?† Jack was smiling at her, as she sat with her sword hilt touching her shoulder when she gestured. â€Å"No,† he said, â€Å"he's off being diplomatic, which is something he shows some brilliance at, for me and Sir Charles. We'd like some extra men here, just in case this silly tribal matter gets out of hand, and I would only get red and froth at the mouth, while Richard can look earnest and beseeching, and may even have some effect.† He looked gloomily at the table. â€Å"I torment myself, now and again, wondering whether, if Corlath had given us a bit more warning about what he had in mind, if Peterson and I could have brought Charles around – even a little – this mess we're in might have been, even a little, less of a mess. But it is not, as we say when we are being diplomatic, a fruitful source of inquiry.† Harry was thinking, For that matter, why didn't Mummy or Father tell me about my mysterious inheritance? They must have known, to tell my wretched brother – indeed, it must have been generally known to some extent; that explains why we were never quite the thing – I always thought it was just because we didn't give the right sort of dinner parties and spent too much time in the saddle. She went hot and cold, and her last shred of doubt about whether she had chosen wisely when she chose the Hills over the country that had raised her dissolved; but she had loved her family and her home, and she was without bitterness. She yanked her attention back as Jack began to speak again: â€Å"It's been a little anxious here lately. There is something, or there are somethings, hanging around the town and the fort; and twice my men have gone out scouting and found signs of battle; and once there was a corpse.† His face was drawn and old. â€Å"It wasn't quite human; although from a distance it would probably look human enough.† Harry said softly: â€Å"I have been told that much of the Northern army is not quite human.† Jack was silent for a little, then said: â€Å"In simple numbers I can't promise much. I don't want to risk forcibly anyone's neck but my own, as we will be going against orders, but there are a few men here I know who have the same attitude toward the Northerners that I do. I will put it to them.† Harry said, â€Å"So, how many and how quickly?† â€Å"Not very and very. Those of us who will go have been quivering like so many arrows on so many bowstrings for weeks; we'll be grateful for the chance to snap forward. Look: you and your friends can have a bath and a nap; and we should be able to march at sunset.† There had been something obscurely troubling Harry since she entered the fort so precipitously; and at first she had put it down to the confusion, to her first sight of Outlanders since she had ceased to be one herself; and the troubled reflections that this recognition had brought her. But the sense of not-quite-right, of a whiff of something unpleasant, or a vibration in the air, increased as the rest of her relaxed. She looked around her now, able to think about this specific disturbance, to focus on its cause if her kelar would point the way. She turned her head one way and another; it was much worse in the small closed space that was Jack's rooms. It was as she put her hand over the blue stone on Gonturan's hilt that she finally understood what it was. â€Å"One last thing,† she said. â€Å"Yes?† said Jack, but it took Harry a little time to put it in words. â€Å"No †¦ guns. Rifles or revolvers, or whatever it is you use. They'll only, um, go wrong.† And she shivered in the proximity of Jack's hunting-rifles hung on the wall, and two revolvers on belts hooked over the back of an unoccupied chair. Jack tapped his fingers on the table. â€Å"Not just rumors, then?† he said. Harry shook her head. â€Å"Not just rumors. It's not something I've seen, about guns – but I know. I know something of what the Hillfolk do, or are – and even if we could stop whatever it is we do, and I can't, because I usually don't know what I'm doing in the first place – I know too that, whatever it is, it will ride with those that we will be facing. And – and the presence of yours in this room,† and she waved her hand, while the other one still rested on the blue gem, â€Å"is making me feel †¦ edgy. It's the sort of thing I'm learning to pay attention to.† The room was suddenly smaller and darker than it had been before Harry spoke; Jack stared at her, seeing his young friend and seeing almost clearly the outline of the thing she had taken on in the Hills; and then an unexpected ray of sunlight fell through the window and the blue gem of her sword hilt blazed up as her hand slipped away from it, and her cheek and hair were lit blue. But the outline of her burden was gone. Jack thought, I am going to follow this child, to my death perhaps, but I am going to follow her, and be proud of the opportunity. â€Å"Very well. I believe you. It's rather pleasant to have one's favorite old-wives'-tales borne out as truth. You'll not want infantry anyway; and our cavalry is accustomed to its sabers.† â€Å"Now, about that bath?† Harry said. Ted was told to provide the baths and beds required; she and Senay were led to Jack's bathroom first, and Harry sank gratefully into the water in the tall tin tub, sliding down till the water closed over her face and she looked up at a wavering circular world. She had to come up at last to breathe, and the world opened out again. Senay unbraided and combed her long dark hair, which fell past her knees in well-ordered waves; Harry watched with envy. Her own hair was nearly so long, but it liked escaping whatever it was put into, and bits were always getting caught in things and snapped off; so while Senay's hair smoothly framed her face and smoothly twisted into a knot at the nape of her neck, Harry always had unrepentant tendrils launching themselves in all directions. Senay bound her sleek mane up again as Harry climbed, dripping, out of the tub. Senay slipped into the water with her own grateful sigh, and Harry put on the oversized ni ghtshirt Ted had laid out for her and stumbled into Jack's bedroom, where two cots had been set up by the bed. Narknon finished investigating all the corners of Jack's rooms, while Jack and Ted eyed her warily, soon after Harry finished her bath; but when the cat tried to squeeze herself next to her sol on the bed, Harry was so deeply asleep already that she refused to make room and Narknon, with a discontented yowl, had to sleep humped over her feet.