The Solution Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Papers

The Solution The business man behind a desk, the scientist in the lab, the artist approaching his canvas, the mathematician examining the symbols he placed on the blackboard--the thoughts going through each of their heads are very different in many ways, yet amazingly similar. For example, the business man must come up with an idea to cut costs and increase revenue for his company. He must find a creative twist to an old idea, a new combination of numbers that allows the company to increase profit and drop costs. Yet this man strays from the numbers and thinks in images, and during the brief moment before the creative act his consciousness seems to play absolutely no role. Often times we must get away from the problem to get closer to the solution. Similarly, we need to get away from words to think more clearly. I once heard a story of a semi-truck that got stuck while trying to drive through a tunnel that was too small. A traffic jam occurred and a team of engineers were called to solve the problem. The engineers measured the semi-truck, the tunnel, the length, the width and the height. But they still could not fmd a solution. A little girl in one of the cars behind the truck asked her father why they did not just let some of the air out of the tires. The father rushed the girl to the engineers and had her tell them the solution that had been at their feet the whole time. The air was taken out, the semi was taken through, and the little girl was taken home. In Physics, we are taught that there are many planes and many points of reference. To Person A, who is standing on a train, he is standing still; to the Person B on the ground, Person A is moving. Within Physics the difference in your point of... ...t everyone can complete on their own and thus make it more personal, in the same way that everyone has their own idea about love that is not ever fully crystallized for lack of words to describe it. The idea in Koestler's essay can be applied to everyday life. When writing this essay I was supposed to form a thought. This essay is the series of thoughts that went through my head while I tried to understand the ideas of Koestler, organized and appended with other ideas and images to strengthen my idea. By the end, I believe that I have finally formed my thought enough to crystallize it into words. By trying hard to search for a solution we sometimes forget our age old instincts. By trying too hard to grasp a hazy image we sometimes find ourselves with nothing more than a dying puff of smoke. One must allow the image to form and come to us. That is creativity.