Is There Any Original Writing?
“Nothing is said that has not been said before” ~ Terrence
What does this virtually suggest? How is one supposed to interpret this? Does this suggest we’ve run out of thoughts and there may be not anything new to say? At first glance, this quote might be perceived to be demotivating. Everything we do is derivative except for the first principles, although even those are extracted from nature. Ironically, writing about ‘original writing’ seems derivative too. But there’s a greater intensity to it than its preliminary belief. Since this quote has a totally wide element it is probably difficult to conceive what it absolutely means, so we’ll try to narrow this down to a specific field.
We as conscious and curious beings have just started to understand things and we have been developing good and satisfying explanations. When we say we are curious about something it just means that we haven’t gotten a really good understanding of it. In the book “The Beginning of Infinity” David Deutsch has elucidated it as “if we are simply curious about something, it means that we believe that our existing ideas do not adequately capture or explain it.” In most cases, people generally understand the concepts without the need of delineating them explicitly with analogies or illustrations, but at times some ideas can be arcane or esoteric, intentionally or otherwise and in such cases understanding something with intuition, and which caters to your curiosity without compromising the depth of it is paramount for appreciating it. Additionally, it’s also likely that each individual’s formation of an explanation to a notion is dependent on their perception which is again influenced by their experience and world view. This is one of the preemptive reasons for not having a single approach to explain a particular theory.
Another compelling take on explanations from David Deutsch — “The quest for good explanations is, I believe, the basic regulating principle not only of science, but for the enlightenment generally.” This is certainly considered one among the most important arguments as to why there’ll by no means a cease to novel writing, people are constantly going to search for explaining matters in their very own manner which satiates their interest and meets their expectations. As David Deutsch has defined it, the pursuit of top motives isn’t simply restricted to expertise technological know-how however it’s miles enlightenment — complete comprehension of the situation.
As long as we’re conscious, the need for fulfilling our thirst to apprehend and be aware isn’t going cease to exist and consequently, we’re going to continue to write indefinitely.
You can find the book “The Beginning of Infinity” by David Deutsch with the Amazon affiliate link below.
