"No Idea Is Original" - true or false and why?

Question

Is an idea original or not? It seems to me that you can take either one of two solid positions that every idea is or (close to) none at all. What's your input? Please logically explain your position.

Answer 1

Ideas are thoughts and therefore unique to the individual that thought them, just due to their perspective.

I bet you never imagined a ballerina stapling patrami to her face while whistleing the song Love Shack. I just made that up and would bet its original.

Answer 2

I think you may be right. While there may be billions of possibilites with regard to ideas, original concepts are most likely a limited number and the variations of that limited number are thought to be original but are not. They are merely variations.

Represent ideas with the letters A and E, you can dress them up, have them make different sounds, follow them with particular letters to get new sounds, but still at the core is the original A and E. Nothing new under the sun. Well, it makes sense inside my head anyway.

Answer 3

I personally think of it like this (and if you completely understand my answer you will undoubtedly realize that this one in itself is also not the original thought),,I am not all that special in the world, I am not all that unique, I live in a house with neighbors, have to live, breath, pay taxes, I've had children, now have grand children, have to eat, have to do a lot of thing's to go on living, just like everyone else, I have a mind, I have feeling's, some thing's are just a functional just as everyone else so there for again not all that unique, not all that different, there are a whole lot of people just as me, think like me , act like me, poop and peep just like i do, so what makes me or any one else think we are so very special to have an original idea.. we aren't all that and then some, we all live and breath and really aren't all that special..... just a very unique, special but like i said quite a little few,, Einstein for example.. Lewis and Clarke were best friend's or not even did thing's like each other, the wright brother's are again two.. Amelia Earhart for example unique by herself far and in between.. Get it, Got it, Good.......

Answer 4

I think it depends on the definition of Original. When they say you an original invention, it means that no one else has invented it before.

Bread ties were original.

When the first language was created, it was original on this Earth. Whomever was the first homo sapien to utter words and where there was understanding was original. Languages were then sparked from that.

If you were to create a 27-Letter of the Alphabet, that wouldn't be considered original because they created other Letters before that. However, where did the first Letter come from? Why isn't the first Letter original?

Answer 5

This isn't true unless you are in Art Class. Not many ideas are original but there are some. Like using tools, either we did it because it is innate or we saw an ape doing it, but something or someone was the first to have the idea to use a tool.

Answer 6

No idea is original, because everything you know and everything you have ever heard in your life came from someone elses' mouth/brain. Any idea you get is merely a "recipe", if you will, of all the other peoples ideas that you've ever known. You have ideas that are "different"(not original) than other peoples' ideas, because you don't/didn't know the same people as them as you were growing up, or have met in your adult life.

Answer 7

The law of the excluded middle - all or nothing is not apposite for this question. It cannot be known whether any idea has been thought of previously or not because we do not and cannot have the data to answer this question. Mere speculation is not good enough notwithstanding that it could be supported by some good arguments. Certainty one way or the other can never be guaranteed.

Answer 8

People come up with the same ideas ..just look at the wheel and bow and arrow..and spear..after all how did these tools travel the world if only one person came up with the ideal..when the europeans come to the americas the indians had spears and bow and arrows..and the wheel in south america...how did that idea get here ...did one person travel the globe show it off to every one..we are so much similar in many ways...

Answer 9

I would say that the idea of "no idea is original" is true because we have always been able to learn. For example the idea of the wheel is an old one, but only evolves with time and new inventions.

Answer 10

Everyone that thinks for themself their ideas are original to them. It is purely coincidental
if someone else comes up with the same idea at the same time! I came up with the idea of using a carpet like material for sweeping floors
but Swiffer was too swift they beat me to the patent office because I couldn't think of a name for it. Everything in the beginning for each person their 1st idea is original for them. It might not be a new idea but it is original for the person!

Answer 11

I dont think so. Unless your born with that thought or something. Its like in some dreams, things from the past days will show up in it even if you dont realize it. We learn what we are taught. You think you have an idea that is so original when it is probably just a combination of different conversations, other thoughts, things youve seen or heard... Its like when you hear a problem and think of an invention to fix it when really tons of people have thought of it. So I think our ideas come from different things from other people.