A sudden liberating thought pops into your mind – but is it really yours?

Do you deserve praise and recognition for good ideas that seemingly just pop into your mind? Yes, says philosopher Francesca Secco, who wants to provide nuance to what can be considered an action.

Creativity can manifest itself in so many ways. It often requires concentration, effort and hard work over a long period of time, but there is still no guarantee that you will get any closer to a solution to your problem.

“I think we all struggle from time-to-time to come up with new ideas. Everyone has experienced having writer’s block that we see no way out of,” says Francesca Secco, philosopher at the University of Oslo.

However, sometimes a new idea just seems to pop into your mind.

“This is something that I constantly experience as a researcher. I can be struggling to think of a good idea for an article or a presentation, and just have to let it go,” Secco says.

“But then the idea hits you while you’re doing something completely different, and while your attention is seemingly somewhere else entirely or nowhere at all – a sudden, liberating thought that may perhaps take you further in your creative work.”

We should be praised for thoughts and ideas

Archimedes in the bathtub and Newton under the apple tree are classic examples.

This likewise applies to artists, writers and scientists. However, it could just as easily be a carpenter or a plumber who encounter challenges when building a new house.

Or a sudden idea about how to set the table for Christmas dinner.

In earlier times, one may have given credit for this to a muse or to God, however Secco believes that we should in fact praise people who come up with ideas in this manner.

Even if they seemingly pop into our heads without warning.

“The fact that we as individuals come up with that idea is something we should acknowledge and praise because it happens to us and not to others. The reason that we are in that situation is that we have the necessary knowledge, we have the interests and experiences, and this is something that can only happen to us specifically,” Secco says.

Furthermore, the creative work is not complete and finished even if a good idea should pop up in this way.

“The creative process obviously goes far beyond an initial thought. In the case of a researcher, for example, a new idea is not enough. It also has to be tested and possibly proven. But it is something that we do with purpose and intent. We can control that part of the work,” says Secco.

It is this distinction between intention and idea that interests Secco, and particularly what it could mean for what the field of philosophy refers to as action theory.

What you do – and what only happens to you
An action is traditionally defined as something we do with purpose and intent, as opposed to things that simply just happen to us.

Examples of the latter could be that we are hit by a ball, or worse, by seagull droppings, while sunbathing. Our digestion or a bout of hiccups are not defined as actions either, because these are things that our body does automatically.

But what about these thoughts that seem to pop into our minds without us actively looking for them? They are not intentional, but does that mean they are not actions?

“I don’t see the idea itself as an action, but I do think that the process which produces the idea should be considered an action. It is an action because it is so closely linked to the person who gets the idea. It reflects this person’s interests, previous experiences and knowledge,” Secco says.

She is therefore of the view that action theory should have a more nuanced view of what an action can be, and it shouldn’t be restricted to intentional actions.

“I am not trying to push back against the existence of intentional actions, but I would argue that this is just one way to capture the close relationship between a human being and their actions,” Secco says.

Is reading an action?
Another example of how actions can be more than what we do intentionally is what happens when we see a word or a sentence in front of us.

“When it comes to reading, this is not something you can avoid. You have to look in another direction if you don’t want to read a word. If an action is limited to what is done intentionally, then there is a question of whether reading is an action,” Secco says.

If it is not an action then, in a philosophical sense, reading will end up in the same category as digestion or hiccups. Secco does not think that sounds reasonable.

“Even though reading happens automatically and it is easy to think that it is just something that happens to us, I want us to realise that we are actually doing something when we read. It is a skill that we have developed, something we have been working on for a long time and that also involves our prior knowledge,” she says.

Secco hopes that providing nuance to the concept of action can open the door to new questions and new discussions within philosophy, and perhaps also within psychology and behavioural theory.

“Perhaps there are types of behaviour that we philosophers can look at with fresh eyes and assess differently. Another way forward is to think differently about the people who perform the actions, and bring the philosophical ideas closer to what we really are as people who perform actions,” Secco says.

https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/news-and-events/news/2023/a-sudden-liberating-thought-pops-into-your-mind.html