[PEN-L:28378] Re: Originality ?

[Jurriaan Bendien <j.bendien@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Is there such a thing as an original idea ? I think yes, but original ideas
are difficult to find. Normally it requires thorough knowledge of the
relevant tradition or genre in order to recognise an original idea as such
or be able to moot it, and in some fields of human endeavour it would
appear that it is easier to be original than in others.

Important probably is also from what point of view we evaluate a human
artifact - most often originality combines with known techniques or
sources. To some extent "novelty" is probably in the eye of the beholder,
i.e. it relies on the specific way in which an artifact or behaviour
happens to be observed.

Our very own Karl Marx did not pretend to be very "original" in his
writings on political economy - in fact he said something like, "bar a
handful of abstractions, I did nothing new". He was among the first to
introduce an extensive apparatus of footnotes in his work on political
economy, to indicate who said it first; presumably to strengthen his case
thereby.

An interesting question is whether modern capitalist culture actually
reduces the human ability to be original (leaving aside the restrictions
imposed by intellectual property rights). A centrepiece of the ideological
defence of capitalism as progressive is, after all, its ability to
stimulate innovation, but what is the relationship between actual
innovation and potential innovation ? I.e. how much innovation that occurs,
is never socially recognised or used in virtue of capitalist social relations ?

J.