Ideas are something that all humans share, not the same ideas but the ability to have an idea or thought. Some great thinkers feel that only humans have this ability. WRONG I feel that animals also have ideas and thoughts however they can't discuss or share them. Human beings on the other hand can discuss and extrapolate their ideas and thoughts.
Wikipedia defines an idea as:
In the most narrow sense, an idea is just whatever is before the mind when one thinks. Very often, ideas are construed as representational images; i.e. images of some object. In other contexts, ideas are taken to be concepts, although abstract concepts do not necessarily appear as images.[1] Many philosophers consider ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being.
The capacity to create and understand the meaning of ideas is considered to be an essential and defining feature of human beings.
In a popular sense, an idea arises in a reflex, spontaneous manner, even without thinking or serious reflection, for example, when we talk about the idea of a person or a place.
One view on the nature of ideas is that there exist some ideas (called innate ideas) which are so general and abstract, that they could not have arisen as a representation of any object of our perception, but rather were, in some sense, always in the mind before we could learn them. These are distinguished from adventitious ideas which are images or concepts which are accompanied by the judgment that they are caused by some object outside of the mind.
Another view holds that we only discover ideas in the same way that we discover the real world, from personal experiences. The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from nurture (life experiences) is known as tabula rasa ("blank slate"). Most of the confusions in the way of ideas arise at least in part from the use of the term "idea" to cover both the representation percept and the object of conceptual thought. This can be illustrated in terms of the doctrines of innate ideas, "concrete ideas versus abstract ideas", as well as "simple ideas versus complex ideas".
Innate Ideas, Adventitious Ideas, Concrete Ideas Versus Abstract Ideas, Simple Ideas Versus Complex Ideas.
I will add another type of idea - Contagious Ideas - The best kind -
No matter what type of idea one has, innate, advetitious, concrete, abstract, simple or complex the idea must be discussed and relayed to others to become contagious.
As stated earlier this is what humans do - discuss ideas.
Once it has been discussed and becomes contagious it take on an entirely different personna. It changes and morphs as each new contributor adds to it. It also takes on a life of it's own. Growing and evolving much the same way that a snowball does when rolled - adding more snow to itself and changings and growing until it becomes a snowman base.
Today with the internet, iphones and all other types of instantaneous communication Contagious Ideas have an even greater chance of happening. Remember the idea must be discussed to morph and today these ideas can be discussed in all corners of the world at lightning speed.
Contagiou ideas have been accepted by the marketing world and morphed into a new arena - Viral Ideas.
Advertisers need a contagious idea to start the conversation. What’s a contagious idea? How do you know you’ve got one? It’s not just a stunt, not a “one off”, not simply viral. It’s an idea that instigates, influences and ultimately changes brand conversation across all media and across all brand experiences. The means of transmission is your consumer’s vast network of connections. They showed us the commercials which were—how should I put it—lovely. Really lovely and memorable.
I am not so interested in the marketing/advertising side of cantagious ideas as I am in the birth of these ideas and the journey they take in becoming contagious. Malcolm Gladwell of The New Yorker discusses this in "The Tipping Point".
More later....
PS - The first I heard of Contagious Ideas was from artist/photographer Iké Udé. Check out his emagazine aRude.
That's interesting. Have you ever heard of memes? I don't know a lot about it but they're contagious thoughts. I think this is something we could use to bring about needed changes, if only we brought awareness to it rather than simply accepting the way society is today. We could create a healthier, more whole situation with our thoughts, if we were so inclined.
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