Sources of Ideas

Sources of Ideas. We must have ideas before we can express them. There are three sources from which ideas arise.

Material from experience

Every day we add to our knowledge through our senses. We see and hear and do, and thus, through experience, acquire ideas about things. By far the greater part of expression has to do with ideas that have originated in this way.

Material from the imagination

we may recombine material into new forms by the imagination. Or think about things that have not actually occurred. We may allow our minds to picture a football game that we have not seen, or to plan a story about a character who never existed.

Material from comunication

We also add to our knowledge through the medium of language. Through conversation and reading we learn what others think, and it is often of value to restate these ideas.