How to innovate with Aristotle

Part XXII of the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series

νέα ἐϕ’ ἡμέρῃ ϕρονέοντϵς
(Thinking new thoughts every day)
— Democritus, 5th century BCE

Turns out, the word “innovation” ain’t new at all. It’s earliest known use is in Greek (of course): kainotomia, and is found in a fifth century BCE comic play by Aristophanes. Funny, since the Greeks are often (and falsely) said not to have been innovators.

Armand D’Angour, the translator of How to Innovate, reminds us that, actually, the Greeks invented the alphabet (borrowing and adapting from earlier attempts by the Phoenicians), philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematical proofs, theatrical drama, rational medicine, monetary coinage, lifelike sculpture, competitive athletics, architectural standards, self-governing city states, and democracy. Not bad, yeah?

In fact, the Greeks also attempted to understand what makes innovation possible in the first place. In particular, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was the first to analyze the logic of change itself. In Book 1 of his Physics he starts out by refuting Parmenides’s notion that change is illusory because it is metaphysically impossible. He then arrives at the conclusion that the new is hardly ever completely new, but depends in complex…