Novelty and originality
Novelty is defined as 'the quality of being new and fresh and interesting, ' 'a new or unusual experience or occurrence' (Collins). Novelty is an essential element in most definitions of creativity. However, this concept is not self-evident and a few reservations should be made to elucidate its meaning and applicability.
What exists now is what will be in the future,
and what has been done is what will be done;
thus there is nothing really new on earth.
Is there anything about which someone can say, "Look at this! It is new!"?
It was already done long ago, before our time.
No one remembers the former events,
nor will anyone remember the future events that are yet to happen;
they will not be remembered by the future generations.
(Ecclesiastes, 1: 9-11)
Are these words of wisdom out of date or can they be applied to our time, which celebrates originality and is so enthusiastic to everything new?
When we are speaking about something as new, it is useful to ask ourselves for whom precisely it is new. When a child stains paper with colours or rhymes words delighting his parents by his creativity, these activities are original only in the sense that the child learns skills that are new for him. However, these pictures are not original in a broader cultural context. When teenagers discover the joy of sex, it is new only for them, but for the human race at large it is something that 'was already done long ago, before our time.' On the other hand, people can generally agree that some philosophical or scientific ideas, technical inventions or works of art are novel and original because they open new dimensions of reality and give new ways of practice that were not present before.
Thus, one must distinguish between relative and absolute, or subjective and objective novelty (Arieti, 1976). Subjective novelty is the apperception of something as being new by an individual person or a group of persons; objective novelty is something that is new for all humanity in its development through ages. It is unlikely, however, that even the most knowing and knowledgeable person boldly say that he knows everything that was before and take liberty to judge things from this standpoint. Hence, it follows that we never can be fully confident that something is objectively new; thus, any forms of novelty are subjective or at least intersubjective, that is relative and probabilistic.
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