Fools might cry out for the familiarity of tradition or the surprise of novelty, thinking that there is something special about either in and of itself. A rational person, in contrast, wants truth instead of just what is familiar or new. Sometimes a truth will overlap with a common belief or something that has long been familiar to an individual or culture, but plenty of truths do not. Sometimes a truth is new to a person or culture, but there are still plenty of times when practically everybody walked right into certain truths and ignored them. There are more foundational, vital, and sometimes clearer aspects that need consideration.
Is an idea true? Is it verifiable? Both of these things are far more important than whether an idea is new to a person, a culture, or the world. There is such a thing as negative originality: a previously undiscovered idea that is false, fallaciously believed, or unimportant is original, but it is not significant [1]. Even if a person come up with it separately from or before all others or believed in it without relying on its popularity, it would either be untrue or trivial. By default, this kind of expression of originality is inherently stupid or meaningless (except, in the case of a trivial truth, as an expression of using reason on one's own).
There is still so much to discover, savor, revisit, and live out when it comes to philosophical truths even aside from novelty as long as an idea is true and important. In fact, very few ideas or experiences are truly discovered for the first time even when individual people come to them on their own, which is its own form of universally accessible originality--that of autonomous reasoning, whether or not social prompting initiated it. It is neither negative nor sub-optimal that so many things are not fully new to humanity, whether ideas or experiences. No one could ever reflect fondly on a cherished philosophical truth or redo any experience if novelty was all there is to existence.
There are even many ways that non-rationalists might already live out the fact that novelty is an incomplete criteria for embracing or doing something. Looking at an attractive member of the opposite gender more than once, eating a favorite kind of food, or rewatching an excellent film are all examples of how something does not have to be new in order to be enjoyed. Ultimately, it is both impossible and damaging to only desire new things. The same is true when it comes to explicitly philosophical matters. Whether an idea is new or previously discovered is of secondary or, in some cases, almost no concern; whether it is true and logically provable is always more important.
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