Hi,
I was trying to plan out how I am going to write a paper for my philosophy class and a question came to me. How do I create new ideas? In itself the asking of the question was a new idea, at least in my own mind, and I wanted to ask others what they think of this. How do you or someone else, create a new idea in your mind, and then how do you form the ideas required to communicate that idea? I hope that if I have some understanding of how this process actually works and how to encourage it in myself and others, we will all be able to create more authentic ideas, and just be more creative and productive in general. But it is also a philosophical question in itself, as a lot of philosophy is about ideas. What sort of thoughts do you all have regarding this question?
God bless you,
Joshua
The process is made easier by first adopting the Cartesian dualism approach to the nature of the mind, with a minor improvement. Assume the brain to be a major repository of information as well as a set of programs which control what new information is allowed into its database. Then assume the soul to be the entity responsible for imaginative thought. Working together, the mechanism of brain and the entity commonly called soul produce the function known as “mind.”
Only the soul can generate ideas. It is its nature to do so, and you cannot really prevent that without suppressing it almost entirely and allowing it (your conscious self) to be run by your brain.
The first key to generating ideas is to focus the brain upon the gathering of information relevant to the kind of ideas you want to generate. If you want to explain the universe, for example, best learn some physics and astrophysics. You’ll note that your idea to ask this question came spontaneously from your curiosity about ideas in general.
The second and most important key is to purge your brain of existing ideas which would block the entry of better ones. That means erasing or shutting down every program associated with certainty, because certainty is an absolute barrier to ideas.
Christians, for example, find it virtually impossible to entertain the concept that the Creator of the universe might be neither omnipotent, omniscient, but could be plural. Atheists find it impossible to intelligently consider any creation-concept, even one which proposes the existence of a Creator Who is entirely different than the God in which they’ve chosen to disbelieve.
You could ask a question about the source of ideas because you had no preconceptions about the answers. As you learn more philosophy, your professors will explain these things to you. They will probably explain them incorrectly. If you follow the path of ordinary students and actually believe those fools, that will be the end of your ideas about ideas. Likewise, other subjects.
To summarize: check out everything you believe. Learn and apply the principles of critical thinking. General semantics will help. Discard or suspend every belief which you’ve been told to accept on faith, by authority figures. If a belief does not make logical sense, get rid of it. If there is some controversy in the real world regarding something about which you are currently certain. take a hard look at the origin of your certainty.
The less you believe, take for granted, or accept unconditionally, the more ideas will well up from your mind to fill the gaps. This applies to all subjects.
This will produce another problem. If ego has its way, new ideas will be right simply because you thought of them. Dealing with that is another subject. Enjoy. (Oh— don’t forget cross training. Good new ideas in philosophy can only come from someone who knows other stuff. Read Thomas Kuhn,
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.)
