Today more than ever innovation seems vital for us to anticipate the future and adapt to our rapidly changing world. But what is innovation and how is it accomplished? How can the mind generate innovative ideas? To gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the human capacity to innovate, the present study aims at answering two basic questions: first, ‘what makes innovation possible?’ and second, ‘why are innovative ideas unusual?’. These questions are addressed within the framework of Peircean semiotics, in particular in the light of Peirce’s conception of inference. Different types of inferences are studied to determine the mode of reasoning which is central to innovative thought. While creativity and innovation are often analysed through the prism of abduction, this study puts forward an alternative approach drawing a parallel between modes of inferences and types of hypoicons. It claims that what makes innovation possible is metaphoric reasoning underlying induction.

中文翻译：

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隐喻、归纳和创新：跳出框框

今天，对于我们预测未来和适应瞬息万变的世界而言，创新似乎比以往任何时候都更加重要。但什么是创新，它是如何实现的？头脑如何产生创新的想法？为了更好地理解人类创新能力背后的机制，本研究旨在回答两个基本问题：首先，“什么使创新成为可能？” 第二，“为什么创新想法不寻常？”。这些问题在皮尔士符号学的框架内得到解决，特别是根据皮尔士的推理概念。研究不同类型的推理以确定推理模式，这是创新思维的核心。虽然创造力和创新通常通过绑架的棱镜来分析，这项研究提出了一种替代方法，在推理模式和hypoicons类型之间进行了对比。它声称，使创新成为可能的是归纳推理的隐喻推理。