The academic discourse on ideas seems highly fragmented, imprecise and incomplete. Certainly, there is extensive literature about creativity and idea generation in psychology, and there are numerous publications on innovation in management sciences and business administration. Little, however, has been published about ideas as such. Substantial interdisciplinary research on the working mechanisms and patterns of ideas in the various realms (science, economics, society) is almost absent. There is no over-arching theory on ideas. In the last centuries there have been some marginal attempts to develop a ‘science of ideas’ (e.g. Antoine Destutt de Tracy, Genrich Altshuller, Patrick Gunkel). Though audacious, stimulating and provoking, these attempts have gained too little attention in the mainstream academic discourse. An ‘idea as such’ is predominantly taken for granted; it seldom becomes an explicit object of study and reflection; it remains a ‘black box’.
The aim of this book is to focus on ideas as such – what they are and how they emerge, develop, interact, gain acceptance and are translated into actions. It presents a tour d’horizon both of the definitions and meanings of the concept ‘idea’ and the conditions under which ideas arise. The book explores the synchronicity of ideas, their taxonomies, and classification; it searches for similarities, patterns and working mechanisms behind the surface of manifested ideas. Special attention is given to the combination and recombination of ideas, the modes of their development in connection to prevailing scientific and societal concepts. It shows how ideas grow, become accepted or refuted, travel across social environments, and are put into practice.
Our ambition is to pave the way for new intellectual perspectives by focusing specifically on ideas. We aim to stimulate fundamental and theoretically refined discussions that will compete with ‘mainstream’ academic discourse about creativity and innovation. We try to offer new theoretical insights by extensively drawing on classical sources, and by combining them with up-to-date concepts. Besides, we bring our insights against the backdrop of a renewed interest for some original, yet almost forgotten thinkers like Antoine Destutt de Tracy, Genrich Altshuller and Patrick Gunkel. In doing so, we aim to formulate a research agenda for a science of ideas.
1. Foreword (Guido Enthoven, Seweryn Rudnicki, Rico Sneller)
2. Towards a Science of Ideas (Guido Enthoven)
Ideas play an important role in various scientific disciplines, especially in philosophy, psychology, economics and law. Yet, there is no over-arching theory on ideas. The historical attempts to develop a ‘science of ideas’, though brave and stimulating, have gained until now little success in the mainstream scientific discourse. There is no shared definition of the phenomenon ‘idea’, and interdisciplinary research on the working mechanisms and patterns of ideas in the various realms (science, economics, society) is almost absent. This article will conclude with a tentative research agenda to develop a science of ideas: 1) Definition and meaning, 2) Origin and genesis, 3) Taxonomy and classification, 4) Problem configurations, 5) Patterns and working mechanisms, 6) Acceptance and legitimacy, 7) Realisation and valorisation. It certainly is an ambitious project to compare and investigate the nature, origin, growth and realisation of ideas in various domains and to draw cross-sectional conclusions about it. To develop a science of ideas would require considerable time and substantial funding; it might be a co-production of universities, governments, companies and international organisations.
3. Ideas in the history of Western philosophy (Gianluigi Segalerba)
This chapter will elaborate on the complex notion of ‘idea’ itself. Derived of the Greek verb horao (to see) it was coined by Plato as a term that designated the ultimate entities upon which our transient sense world is built. Evident as our modern word ‘idea’ may seem, it already draws on a particular explanation of it. Plato, for example, would not understand our modern conception of the root concept which he introduced. Without claiming to be exhaustive, this chapter will create some order in the confusing history of the notion of ‘idea’. It will show that it underwent a radical subjectivation which largely transformed it from transhuman objectivity into an inner-human creation. Being blind to the notion of ‘idea’ itself as of its inception may lead to incapacitating oneself when it comes to giving birth to new ideas.
4. What is an idea? (Rico Sneller)
This paper will elucidate the nature of ideas. I will argue that an idea, far from being a useful asset or tool, comes down to a disposition to overcome, whether in thinking or acting, an impasse. Generating ideas cannot fail to affect the generator’s structure of subjectivity itself, enabling them to look ‘beyond’ a given impasse. I propose an approach that is philosophical in nature, with an emphasis on phenomenology. Ideas, I will argue, are (1) beyond a subject/object split: a fundamental ‘passivity’ in the subject will necessarily be part and parcel of their ‘generation’. Next (2), ideas will be occasioned by synchronistic developments that typify the idea-generator’s wider environment. Finally (3), ideas are bound to possess an irreducible opacity, that can never be made fully transparent.
This methodology puts in evidence that the prevailing empirical-scientific worldviews tend to over-emphasise objects. However, not only can we imagine ways of being that do not comply with an object-structure (emotions, values, beliefs), but also do those things that we approach as objects lose essential features in the very act of our objectification. This is very relevant when it comes to ideas. Approached as objects, ideas seem to be susceptible to manipulation and instrumentalisation. It is my hypothesis that the nature of ideas undoes the prevailing subject/object structure that characterises our technological age.
5. The travelling of ideas as a virus infection. (Johan Olaisen, Oivind Revang)
We argue that a virus metaphor might be fruitful for understanding and describing organisations’ handling of ideas. By using a virus as a metaphor for idea handling processes, we combine knowledge from biology and virology with the field of organisation and management research. Metaphors have been used in organisational theory for many years and, by taking a concept from one domain and transposing it to another, and using the concepts from biology, we might better understand the travelling of ideas in organisations. The article will describe each of the ten stages of a life of ‘virus’ of ideas:
- Adoption: The formal decision in an organisation to adopt the idea.
- Non-adoption: The more or less deliberate organizational decision not to embrace the concept.
- Isolation: A formally adopted but not implemented the idea residing in units often at an organizations’ top level (e.g. in some actors’ memories, in documents, etc.), and decoupled from organizational practices.
- Expiry: The gradual evaporation of a formally adopted idea, often without any formal decision to quit.
- Rejection: The decision to stop using an adopted idea concerning experiential learning, (e.g., unsatisfactory results, or incompatibility, i.e., that it has proven not to fit in with institutional norms, and complex practices).
- Entrenchment: The transformation of an idea into practice (i.e., it is anchored in organizational structures, routines, and daily activities), in such a way that specific intended effects are reproduced.
- Maturation: An idea lingers in an organization, often for a long time, before materializing, leading to a gradual, slow-phased transformation of the concept into practice.
- Translation: The more or less deliberate change of methods and ideas that takes place when they are transferred, and attempts are made to implement them.
- Inactivation: Organizational activities related to an adopted idea either decrease or are discontinued.
- Reactivation: A passed but dormant idea is “turned on” again and organizational activities connected to the idea increase.
6. Organisation, evolution, cognition and dynamic capabilities. (Bart Nooteboom)
[abstract to be included]
7. How do ideas come into being? Ideation as a social practice (Seweryn Rudnicki)
The aim of this chapter is to take a closer look on the process of idea generation. The understanding of ideas as cognitive entities springing in someone’s mind is underlying not only conventional wisdom but also the academic reflection on creativity and innovation. To offer a fresher analytical framework this article draws on the practice theory approach (a theoretical perspective stemming from the works of Wittgenstein, Bourdieu, Foucault and Latour that in recent years has been highly successful, particularly in the area of science and technology studies). The central argument of this article is that idea generation (regardless if in the field of fine arts, science, business, management or everyday life) may be understood as a social practice. As such it may be described as a configuration of materials, meanings and competences that appears when connections between these elements emerge and evolves as the elements and their relationships change.
The proposed approach offers several interesting analytical possibilities. First, it implies that ideas are not just generated by individuals or groups but rather emerge within practices of ideation and as a result of particular combinations of materials, competences and meaning involved in a given practice. Second, this analytical framework allows to track dynamics and trajectories of practices of ideation. In this view, their history, paths of formation and development may be examined as resulting from changes in the materials, meanings and competences constituting a given practice and relations between them. Third, using the practice lenses allows to see how different practices of ideation are socially distributed and how they change, mutate and travel across social environments.
8. Understanding the nature of ideas from their use in neuro- and bio- feedback (Tatjana Kochetkova)
Biofeedback and neurofeedback are mind-body techniques that enable control over usually involuntary bodily functions, such as as heart rate, muscle tension, blood flow, pain perception and blood pressure, or brain waves. Bio- and neuro- feedback work largely via visualization and focusing on ideas and images. This study will look at the role that ideas and imagery play in the process of extending voluntary control of mind over body.
The natural place where ideas are ‘born’ is human mind. Also, the perception of new ideas occurs in human mind. If so, to understand the nature of ideas we have to address human mind and body-mind interaction. The fact that mind can extend its control over involuntarily body functions by means of meditation, bio- and neuro-feedback, is and remains still little understood. Yet, a good way to understand the nature of ideas is to study them ‘in action’ : in the process of being applied to gain control over the body. Such a study will provide access to one of the most fascinating aspects of ideas: ideas as instruments of action, ideas as transmitters of energy, as the force, able to shape reality in the most specific sense. In this way, ideas reveal the nature of specifically human reality, and their central place in shaping human reality.
9. The history of Creative Problem Solving (Han van der Meer)
In this chapter the history of Creative Problem Solving will be told. Starting from Aristotle the contemporary schools in deliberate creativity will be discussed. Major authors from practice like Osborn (Brainstorming), Gordon & Prince (Synectics), de Bono (Lateral Thinking), Kepner & Tregoe (Rational Management), Buzio (Mindmap), van de Ven (Nominal Group) and Altshuller (TRIZ) will be put in the perspective of more theoretical authors like Wallace (the creative process), Guilford (diverging/converging) and Koestler (bisociation). An attempt to summarise the findings in the schools in one overarching framework will be made.
10. Cultures and Ideas: How Organizational and National Cultures Affect the Emergence of Ideas
(Piotr Prokopowicz, Seweryn Rudnicki)
Where do good ideas come from? Why do some thrive, while others die? It seems self-evident that all creators, inventors and innovators operate in broader social, institutional and professional contexts that may play an important role in the emergence of ideas. In this chapter we focus on cultural factors and by critically reviewing the existing studies show how organisational and national cultures foster or hinder generation and early development of ideas (understood here as concepts that are relatively new and offer a solution to a problem). In our analysis we will attempt to critically review the existing studies on organisational and national cultures to show what aspects of cultures play a role specifically in the emergence and early development of ideas and what are the working mechanisms of these effects. We will also point out what findings in this field are less clear or missing and highlight possible complexities and interactions between cultural factors. We will end by showing the practical consequences of these findings for inventors, innovators, managers and makers, arguing that they should not only take into account cultural factors operating on organisational and societal levels, but that in some cases they may also intentionally build cultures that foster creativity and inventiveness.
11. The Science of Ideas, A Post-Nihilistic Approach (Han Bakker)
In this chapter I will look into the question what the contemporary reactions are to the demise of postmodernism. While doing so I will evaluate the relation between knowledge an ideology. I will regard ideas as related to knowledge which is taken as an organised framework (Kroeber) following the social construction of observations, facts, theories, paradigms and ideologies (Giddens). Ideas are embedded or nested; they form part of larger wholes, they vary on the scale of maturity (mental aggregates, Simonton) and quality, they are temporary and form part of sensemaking processes (Weick). Ideas have to be communicated so they do not just exist as mental constructions in an intra-subjective environment; they also exist on intersubjective and collective levels (Drazin, Glynn and Kazanjian). In this chapter the focus is on the relationship and working mechanisms between knowledge and ideology. I will understand ideologies as the macro context of societies that are usually made up by religions (Christianity or Islam), political systems (capitalism, communism or postmodernism) or administrative notions (Rhineland – or Anglo-Saxon model). It is argued that the current postmodern approach does not seem capable to address the challenges of current times and that a new approach is needed. I will present three contemporary (post-postmodernist) approaches: meta-modernism, neo-traditionalism and post-nihilism.
12. How Ideas Change the World. Patterns in Social Innovation (Guido Enthoven)
Social innovations that improve health, reduce unemployment, strengthen democracy or contribute to a better environment are crucial for the well-being of future generations. Business innovation is a big issue, but there is relatively less attention for innovation in the public sector: new ideas, proposals, plans and schemes which aim to make the world a better place. The field of social innovation has grown up primarily as a field of practice, but relatively little attention is paid to history or theory. This article is an attempt to search for the patterns and mechanisms behind social innovations. Are there similarities between social innovations? Do social innovations in different domains like health, education, mobility or sustainability have common characteristics?
Some research has been done on patterns in technical innovation. As a former patent officer, Genrich Altshuller (1926-1998) wrote articles and books on ‘TRIZ’, a theory of creative problem-solving. According to him, all innovations can be reduced to several principles. It turned out that there were similarities between all those 100,000 inventions he and his team had investigated. He found 40 recurring patterns, 40 characteristics or mechanisms. Altshuller was widely recognised in the field of creative problem solving, though his work almost completely focused on product innovation. It is unclear if it is possible to distillate a similar collection of patterns in the field of social innovation. What are the driving forces within social innovations? Is it possible to peel social innovations of to their basic working mechanisms? Is it possible to find patterns in social innovations on reducing crime, vitalising democracy, creating employment or environmental policy? Could it be possible to define a set of 40 mechanisms behind innovations in society? In this article we will elaborate on these questions.
Science of Ideas 