Propositions About Novelty

The emergence of novelty is a ubiquitous feature in science, technology, and economic life. It is the crucial input to the growth of human knowledge. At the same time, novelty is one of the most amorphous concepts in scientific thought. Both theorizing about, and decision making in face of, novelty face notorious problems. This paper tries to shed some light on the question of why this is so and explores the possibilities for dealing in a more systematic fashion with the novelty. The notion of degrees of novelty is introduced and compared to that of a probability measure. The results of the inquiry are summarized in some propositions.