"Necessity is the mother of invention" is a proverb. It states that the primary driving force for most new inventions is a need.[1] Show Meaning[edit]The need to communicate led to the creation of different communication devices. On Lexico, the proverb has been defined as "When the need for something becomes imperative, you are forced to find ways of getting or achieving it."[2] According to the Cambridge Dictionary, this is "an expression that means that if you really need to do something, you will think of a way of doing it."[3] Longman dictionary has defined the proverb as: "if someone really needs to do something, they will find a way of doing it."[4] History[edit]One of the earliest recorded instances of the proverb is in one of Aesop’s Fables, “The Crow and the Pitcher” from the mid 6th century BCE. Plato's Republic says "our need will be the real creator",[5] which Jowett's 1894 translation rendered loosely as "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention."[6] The connection of mother and necessity is documented in Latin and in English in the 16th century: William Horman quoted the Latin phrase Mater artium necessitas ("The mother of invention is necessity") in 1519;[7][page needed] Roger Ascham said "Necessitie, the inventour of all goodnesse" in 1545.[8][page needed] In 1608, George Chapman, in his two-part play The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron, used a very similar phrase: "The great Mother / Of all productions, grave Necessity." And the exact phrase is used by Richard Franck in 1658.[9][1] The phrase was used in medieval French and can be found in a collection of proverbs dating to 1485-1490, and is included with another saying, "Hunger makes people resourceful," and an illustration of one man eating a carrot and another man eating grass.[10] In popular culture[edit]
Criticism[edit]In an address to the Mathematical Association of England on the importance of education in 1917, Alfred North Whitehead argued that "the basis of invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity," and in contrast to the old proverb "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much nearer to the truth.[13] References[edit]
What is the mother and father of invention?"If NECESSITY is the MOTHER of INVENTION, then LAZINESS is the FATHER"
What is the father of necessity?Proverb, five centuries old: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” And, for nearly two of those centuries, Industrial Era necessities sparked inventions that continue to shape the world around us.
Is the father of all inventions?Edison is nothing less than the father of modern research and development.
Why is necessity the father of invention?"Necessity is the mother of invention" is a proverb. It states that the primary driving force for most new inventions is a need.
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