We explain what ideas are, how they are studied, what they are for and what the theory of ideas is. Also, main and secondary ideas.
What are ideas?
Ideas are mental representations of the reality that arise from reasoning or of the imagination, and that subsequently give rise to the concepts. Having an idea is considered the most basic and fundamental act of understanding, in which we formulate a mental notion of an object, a person or a situation, whether real or even imaginary, since one idea begets other ideas.
In fact, we traditionally associate ideas with the act of seeing or perceiving reality, so much so that the word itself comes from the Greek eîdos, translatable as "view"Or" appearance. " So that to devise or form ideas consists in principle in perceiving the world through the senses and creating mental abstractions from it.
The study of ideas has occupied the humanity since ancient times, and is generally done based on four different perspectives:
- Perspective logic, according to which an idea is equated to a proposition with a precise meaning.
- Ontological perspective, according to which ideas are equated with concrete referents in the real world.
- Transcendental perspective, according to which ideas are possibilities of construction and communication of knowledge.
- Psychological perspective, according to which an idea is a subjective mental formation.
At speaks everyday we usually associate ideas with thoughts and occurrences, so that they are a reflection of the creativity or the ingenuity of a person, and we judge and distinguish between good ideas and bad ideas, as they are useful for the resolution of some type of problem. problems.
Theory of ideas
The Theory of Forms or Theory of Ideas was created by the Greek philosopher Plato (c.427-347 BC), who was one of the first scholars of the world of ideas. In this theory he proposes the separate existence of two worlds:
- The sensible world, of real and concrete objects, tangible and that can be perceived through the senses.
- The intelligible world, of abstract and mental objects, where ideas are found.
For Plato, the first of these worlds was eternally changeable and ephemeral, while the second was enduring, eternal, and unique. Or what is the same, that the ideas were eternal, perfect and unique, and existed independently of our thought, in a hierarchy of its own at the head of which was the idea of good.
From there it followed that the sensible world, the concrete world, was nothing but a copy, a translation, a manifestation of that eternal and perfect world of ideas, which some demiurge or creator had used as a pattern to organize matter. In fact, Plato understood the very creation of an object (a chair, for example) as an imperfect copy of his idea (the idea of a chair).
This theory of ideas allowed Plato to conceive his famous allegory of the cave, according to which the Humans we can only perceive the copies or representations of the true world that exists beyond our reach.
To do this, he used the metaphor of men who had been born and raised inside a cave, chained with their backs to the light in such a way that they could not turn or move, and who therefore gazed at the shadows of the objects that passed behind them as if they were the real objects.
On the other hand, this Theory of Ideas was criticized and contested by Plato's most brilliant disciple, the famous Aristotle (385-322 BC), who rejected the idea that the world could be compartmentalized.
What are ideas for?
There is probably nothing as useful as an idea, at least in the case of humanity. The ability to formulate, debate and contrast ideas is part of the nature of our species and in which lies most of our biological success.
Unlike other species, which slowly adapt to the environment through biological evolution, human beings have been able to extract notions from the environment (ideas) and extract notions from those first notions, thus accumulating a set of forms and relationships that today we understand as knowing or knowledge.
The knowledge formed by the ideas allowed us to modify the environment and make it more favorable to us, in a shorter period of time than that which takes other species into the environment.
Thus, a good idea can revolutionize a field of knowledge, it can provide the answer to a community dilemma, it can establish new mechanisms to face life's problems, or it can inspire others to have better and more complex ideas. Behind everything we humans do there is, to some extent, an idea.
Main and secondary ideas
Since the communication of ideas is extremely important to human beings, we have invented numerous systems that allow us to do so, known as idioms. Writing is just one of them, and today we understand the text as the greatest vehicle for ideas.
Thus, in any text we usually distinguish two types of ideas: the main and the secondary.
- The main ideas are those that constitute the nucleus of what is said in the text, that is, that express its most basic, fundamental and essential information, which is why they occupy a higher hierarchical place within the structure of the text.
- Secondary ideas, on the other hand, are those that serve as support, support or accompaniment to the main ideas and that, therefore, derive from them. They are hierarchically inferior within the text, and are often only for the purpose of expanding, exemplifying, or demonstrating the main ideas.