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I have a theory that I can’t prove. That all the thoughts, behaviours, routines, etc… In human nature are the result of some new value of the past. Throughout all of history and prehistory people have been striving to create something new. This is the story of humanity, civilization, and technology, and much more. It is obvious that our technologies were once invented by one inventor or another, but it is less obvious that this too is true of our thoughts. 

With some thoughts it is obvious. That will to power was conceived of by Nietzsche and that amour propre by Rousseau. But it is less obvious that our eccentricities and neuroticisms are too relics of prior conception. Why isn’t this the story of human evolution? Were we not monkeys once? How did we get so many thoughts? Was the first thought not a creative act of a genius monkey? Here’s where things get wishy washy, but this is my idea. That once the first thought was created, it was then shared and passed down, and built upon! 

We now live in a world with so many thoughts that it can be hard to navigate them, but I believe it is still possible to create new thought. Furthermore I am toying with the idea that unless we do create new thought, then all of our thoughts are the thoughts of our predecessors. Our greatest anxieties and our greatest genius too – these  could all be values once created by someone somewhere.