What is the value of an idea?

Question:

What is the value of an idea?

People throw out old encyclopedias because they are old, not modern. They do not contain the current information and some of the information is plain wrong. People throw out old books because they have no entertainment value anymore.

Books that become collectors items are valuable for the fact that the book, the material, is rare. For the most part the contents of the book that is a collectors item does not effect the value of the book.

So what is the value of an idea? What is the value of the ideas in the old encyclopeadias, in old books, in books that are collectors items?

Is the way that a society treats its books indicative of the society at a whole?

What is the value of an idea, even if it is wrong?

Serious answers only please.

Thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The value of an idea. Very good question. I like it.

It is a very subjective thing as one person's rubbish is another's treasure, as the saying goes (once politically corrected ;-)

The value of an idea is the usefulness to the person in question. I love (for example) Star Wars not for the Sci-Fi Space Saga (although I do like that sort of stuff) but because the ideas behind it. The concept of the Good versus Dark is timeless and the way it is dealt with is very simplistic. The concept or idea of the "Force" to me holds great appeal to me for it's moralistic implications. To another, it is a pile of nonsense and has no meaning to them what-so-ever.

The value of an idea is the same as the beauty of something, it's all in the eye of the beholder. That is why you have people throwing out books, and others collecting them.