The Importance of the Psychology of Creativity The Author Philosophy Compass ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing LtdĢ. That theory should not be one solely in aesthetics, for creativity is to be found in science, craft, business, technology, organisational life and everyday activities and discussing its philosophy requires drawing on the resources not just of the philosophy of art but many other areas of philosophy, including the philosophy of mind, science and epistemology. There is also an enormous amount of work in the psychology on creativity, which has often been neglected by philosophers, but which provides invaluable resources with which to build a philosophical theory of creativity.
Yet given its importance and the number of interesting philosophical questions it raises, it should be a major topic in philosophy. But in contrast to such perennial favourites in the philosophy of art as the nature of int interp erpret retati ation, on, the defi definit nition ion of ‘ar ‘art’ t’ and the con concep ceptt of the aes aesthe thetic tic, cre creati ativit vity y has received remarkably little attention by aestheticians nor has it been much examined by other philosophers. Interesting work has been done on the topic by philosophers, some of which we will review in what follows. Yet surpri sur prisin singly gly lit little tle phi philos losoph ophica icall wor work k was don donee on cre creati ativit vity y in the per period iod 195 1950–2 0–2000 000, and it is only in the last 10 years or so that there has been a revival of interest in the topic, marked in part by two anthologies (Gaut and Livingston Krausz et al.). sections 43–50) linked creativity to imagination both accounts were powerfully influential on Romanticism and thereby on popular conceptions of creativity.
Plato (Ion) argued that inspiration is a kind of madness and Kant (Critique of the Power of Judgment esp. And historically, some great philosophers have had much of interest to say on the subject. It is natural to assume, then, that the philosophical work on creativity would be voluminous. And not only in relation to art does creativity figure prominently in popular thought, for our culture is obsessed with creativity: working in ‘the creative industries’ carries a large amount of cachet, business books on innovation abound and we are regularly abjured to ‘think outside the box’. Issues covered include the definition of ‘creativity’ the relation of creativity to imagination whether the creative process is rational whether it is teleological the relation of creativity to knowledge whether creativity can be explained computational and Dar Darwin winian ian theo theories ries of cre creati ativit vity y whe whether ther creativit creativity y is a virt virtue ue the rel relati ation on of cre creati ativity vity to tradition the aesthetic value of creativity and whether creative activity is different in science and art.Īsk someone what she associates with art and it is likely that the first words that come to her mind will include ‘emotion’, ‘expression’ and ‘creativity’. It also al so sh show owss tha thatt th thee ra range nge of int inter erest esting ing ph philo iloso sophi phica call que questi stions ons to be ra raise ised d ab about out cr crea eati tivi vity ty is much wider than concerns its role in art. The Philosophy of Creativity Berys Gaut* University of St AndrewsĪbstract This paper surveys some of the central issues in the philosophy of creativity and argues that an adequate treatment of them requires attention to the rich psychological literature on creativity.
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