But first, a bit of background. Traditionally, Western philosophy has distinguished eality from appearance. things themselves from representations of them, and thought from signs that express it. Signs or representations, in this view, are but a way to get at reality, truth. or ideas. and they should be as transparent as possible: they should not get in the way, should not affect or infect the thought or truth they represent. In this framework. speech has seemed the immediate manifestation or presence of thought. while writing. which operates in the absence of the speaker, has been treated as an artificial and derivative representation of speech. a potentially misleading sign of a sign.