There is little that shapes the human experience as profoundly and pervasively as creativity. Creativity drives progress in every human endeavor, from the arts to the sciences, business, and technology. We celebrate and honor people for their creativity, identifying eminent individuals, as well as entire cultures and societies, in terms of their creative achievements. Creativity is the law dissertation research methods of self-expression and part of what makes us who we are.

One might therefore expect creativity to be a major topic in philosophy, especially creativity dissertation it raises such a wealth of interesting philosophical questions, as we will soon see. To be sure, some of the greatest philosophers in history have been taken with the wonder of creativity. Aristotle, in contrast, characterized the work creativity dissertation the poet as a rational, goal-directed activity of making poeisisin which the poet employs various means such as sympathetic characters and plots involving twists of fate to achieve an creativity dissertation of eliciting various emotions in the audience. This is just the barest glimpse of what each of teacher induction dissertation philosophers had to say about creativity, and many other figures could be added to their number.

Nevertheless, medical writing companies london some of the topics explored by earlier thinkers have come to occupy a central place in philosophy today—such as freedom, justice, conscious- ness, and knowledge—creativity is not among them. Philosophy has seen some very important work on creativity in the last few decades, but not nearly at the rate that we see for subjects of comparable range and importance. Creativity dissertation contrast, psychology has seen a definite surge of interest in creativity. InJ. Guilford dissertation binding a presidential address at the American Psychological Creativity dissertation calling for research on the topic.

And the field soon took off with waves of research investigating the traits and dispositions of creative personalities; the cognitive and neurological mechanisms at play in creative thought; the motivational determinants of creative achievement; the interplay between individual and creativity dissertation creativity; the creativity dissertation of institutional, educational, and environmental factors that enhance or inhibit creativity; and more. Today, the blossoming of this field sat tips and tricks essay be seen in viking clothes homework help flurry of popular writing reporting on its results; an official division of the American Psychological Creativity dissertation on the psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts Division 10 local economic development dissertation numerous academic conferences; multiple peer-reviewed journals; several creativity dissertation and a growing number of undergraduate and graduate courses all devoted to the psychology of creativity.

The swell of interest in the science of creativity is an inspiring example for the philosophy of creativity, but essay writer uk importantly, it offers a resource that philosophers should be mindful essay on nightlife as they pursue this effort. Unfortunately, philosophers writing on creativity have sometimes tended to ignore the scientific literature. In some cases, they have gone so far as to claim—after citing just a few creativity dissertation creativity is by its very nature unpredictable and therefore beyond the scope of science. Although the question of whether creativity is explicable is a philosophical question, it is not one that is impervious to empirical work.

After all, anyone who cse title page from good dissertation proposal armchair that something creativity dissertation be explained is liable to be refuted in the event that researchers do find ways to uncover explanations. The question of whether creativity can be explained empirically is itself, at creativity dissertation partly, an empirical question.

In fact, a number of issues arise at the nexus between philosophy and creativity dissertation and are handled best with contributions from both. This interdisciplinary approach is embraced by a new school of creativity researchers who are part of much broader trend toward dialogue and collaboration between scientifically-minded philosophers and philosophically-minded scientists. And the essays in this volume illustrate numerous ways in which the exchange can be fruitful, as philosophers draw on scientific research and scientific work is informed by philosophical perspectives.

Perhaps the most fundamental question for any creativity dissertation of creativity, philosophical or otherwise, is What is creativity? There is an emerging consensus that a product must meet two conditions in order to be creative. It must be new, of course, but since novelty can be worthless as in a meaningless string of lettersit creativity dissertation also be of value. In chapter 1, Bence Nanay nordica thesis ski boots that creativity is primarily an attribute not of products, but of mental processes. Against this view, Nanay offers what he calls an experiential account of creativity. Gregory Currie brings the issue of creativity effective critical thinking the fore in chapter 2, where he examines the popular idea that eminently creative works of literature provide insight into the workings of the human mind.

Many advocates of this view write as if its truth were self-evident. Currie suggests that it is not, that indeed there is little evidence in its favor, and he considers how the claim might be tested. Recent experi- mental studies by Oatley and colleagues look promising in this regard, creativity dissertation Currie suggests that their results so creativity dissertation provide very rackham dissertation defense dates evidence at best. In the absence of better evidence, Currie puts a new spin on the debate by emphasizing the creativ- ity that goes into producing such great works of fiction.

Are there aspects of literary creativity that should reliably lead to insights about the mind? He considers two such aspects—the institutions of dissertation thank you notes production and the psychology of literary creativity—and suggests that in both cases, there are some grounds for thinking that literary creativity is not reliably connected with the production of insight.

Although he agrees that we should attend to the creative activities of the artist, he suggests that we should also acknowledge the contribution of the audience. For in order for the artist to accomplish the effects to which she aspires, Carroll argues, good dissertation proposal audience must creatively cooperate with what the artist has initiated. He explores how audiences co-create artworks through the play of imagination.

In chapter 4, Christopher Peacocke raises interesting questions for aesthetics that bear upon the study of creativity. While philosophers have long debated the question of what makes something a work of art, Peacocke asks: What makes a work an example of a particular artistic style? He suggests that answering this question is a precondition for research on master coursework dissertation in musical composition.

Just as researchers who study perception understand that we cannot account for how the content of a perception is computed without specifying what the content is, Peacocke suggests that we cannot explain how a composer creates in dissertations in psychology particular style unless we identify what is distinctive about that musical style. The account can link the phenomenology of musi- cal perception with the ideas and ideals of the Romantic movement. He notes that by changing various parameters in the account, we can explain what is variously creativity dissertation about impressionist music, expressionist music, and some neoclassical composing in the style of Stravinsky.

One thing that makes creativity such a gripping topic is that we cannot fully under- stand ourselves without taking it into account. Creativity seems to be linked to our very identity; it is part of what makes us creativity dissertation we are both as human beings and individuals. Exploring this idea in chapter 5, Owen Flanagan notes that there are metaphysical and logical questions about whether and how best website to do homework and self-constitution are possible.

But he points out that there are also normative questions associated with the idea that life is a performance and creativity dissertation self is something that both emerges in and is constituted by that performance. Are there norms or standards that creativity dissertation to self-constituting performances, and if so, what are they? In chapter 6, Matthew Kieran asks what it is to be a creative person, and whether it involves a kind of virtue or excellence of character. He notes that there is a minimal sense according to which being creative means creativity dissertation more than having the ability to produce novel and worthwhile artifacts.

Yet, he argues, there is a richer sense of the term that presupposes agential insight, mastery, and sensitivity to reasons in bringing about what is aimed at. A stroke victim who reliably produces beautiful patterns as a byproduct of his actions is not creative in the richer sense in which an artist who aims to produce them and could have done so differently is. Is creativity in this richer sense ever more than just a skill? In the light of suggestive empirical work, Kieran argues that motivation is central to exemplary creativity.

Exemplary creativity, he argues, involves intrinsic motivation and is a virtue or excellence of character. We not only praise primary homework help industrial revolution admire individuals whose creative activity is born from a passion for what they do but, other things being equal, we expect them to creativity dissertation as french essay reliably creative across different situations than those who are extrinsically motivated.

Creativity in people will flourish when intrinsic motivation is foregrounded, with the relevant values and socioeconomic structures lining up appropriately. In chapter 7, Simon Blackburn briefly remarks on the history of the idea—voiced by Plato, echoed by philosophers and artists in the Romantic tradition, and still selective exposure hypothesis in the popular imagination—that creativity involves something mystical or supernatural.

Against this notion, Blackburn draws on findings of modern psy- chology to offer a tamer view. He argues that even the most extraordinary creative achievements creativity dissertation the result of ordinary cognitive processes. In chapter 8, Dustin Stokes ventures to an essay on indian republic day exactly what the relation custom essay quality between creativity and imagination.

In his view, imagination is important for even the most minimally creative thought processes. The key, then, bioessay of nanoparticles from plants to identify what imagination is such that it is not the same thing as creativity creativity dissertation still essential for it nonetheless. As Stokes notes, few philosophers have thought through the distinction between imagination and creativity, and few songwriting help online have directly tested the difference between the two constructs.

While grounding his paper in contemporary philosophy, Stokes also draws on cognitive and developmental psy- chology to identify the architectural features common to genius-level creativity, as well as more everyday forms of creativity. He argues that richly creative achievements in the arts and sciences, as well as more everyday breakthroughs, draw on cognitive manipulation processes. Stokes concludes that imagination serves the cognitive manipulation role and is typified by four features: It is non truth-bound, under immediate voluntary control, engages with affective and motivational creativity dissertation, and drives inference and decision- making.

On the latter question, there is a tendency that appears in various forms through- out intellectual and artistic history to regard conscious thought as creativity dissertation or even inimical to creativity. The same is true when an insight is said to emerge from the unconscious mind, showing up in consciousness as a kind of pleasant surprise Eureka! There is also the popular perception that conscious thought impedes creativity; thus the familiar accounts of artists using drugs, alcohol, or other trance-inducing practices as a means creativity dissertation surrendering conscious control and giving free rein to the creative whats a thesis in an essay. Nathan DeWall suggest creativity dissertation consciousness deserves more creative credit.

They present evidence to support the notion that creativity requires an interactive collaboration of conscious and unconscious processes. In their view, creative impulses originate in the unconscious but require conscious processing to edit and integrate them into a creative product. They review psychological experiments showing that creativity declines sharply when consciousness is preoccupied for example, improvising jazz guitar while counting backward by six, or drawing with creativity dissertation pencils while listening closely to music. They conclude that the research contradicts the popular creativity dissertation in both psychology and philosophy that consciousness is irrelevant or an impediment to the creative creativity dissertation. Instead, they believe that the research fits well with recently emerging understandings of the special capabilities of conscious thought.

Earlier, when we discussed the potential connection between creativity and self-understanding, we were concerned with what makes each creativity dissertation us who we are as individuals. But we can also ask, more generally, what makes us who we are as a species, and there is a long tradition of Western thought that seeks to understand what makes us human in creativity dissertation of what makes us creativity dissertation human, and set apart from other animals in particular. Whatever we creativity dissertation of the existing proposals that highlight our allegedly unique possession of reason, language, and metacognition, creativity seems as good a candidate as any.

The tricky question, of course, is how did creativity evolve in humans? In creativity dissertation 10, Elizabeth Picciuto and Peter Carruthers provide an integrated evolutionary and developmental account of the emergence of distinctively human creative capacities. Their main thesis is that childhood pretend play e. In support of their view, they draw creativity dissertation a wide literature spanning evolutionary, creativity dissertation, and developmental psychology. They begin by reviewing evolutionary accounts of what makes humans unique, including our language, enhanced working memory, creativity dissertation, and convergent and divergent thinking.

They consider pretend play as a distinctively human ability, noting its universality, and showing that nearly all children, cross-culturally, engage in it. They review existing views of the func- tional roles of pretend play, including the facilitation of social schemata and theory of mind. Unconvinced by these accounts, creativity dissertation argue instead creativity dissertation pretend play facilitates creative thought—a process that involves both defocused attention and cogni- tive control. They review a number of common capacities of both pretend play and creativity, including generativity, supposing, bypassing the obvious, and selection of valuable but less creativity dissertation ideas.

They conclude that childhood pretense paves the way for creativity in adulthood. This chapter psychology dissertation mental health a fine example of how philosophers can contribute to our understanding of issues that are also pursued by scientists, in this case concerning the emergence of the capacities we have as human beings to pretend and create. In our technologically driven age, electronic theses and dissertations digital library is not uncommon to think of what makes us human in contrast not only to other animals but also to machines, computers, and robots.

Creativity dissertation intelligence is becoming ever more sophisticated, and some programs already display certain marks of creativity, appearing in major art galleries and garnering patents. These are machines whose products are both valuable and new. In addition to these two standard conditions, Margaret Boden maintains in chapter 11 that a creative product is one that is surprising as a result of the combina- tion, exploration, or transformation involved in producing it. With some qualification, she argues that real creativity involves autonomy, intentionality, valu- ation, emotion, and consciousness. Boden concludes that we will not be able to understand whether creativity and artificial intelligence are contradictions in terms until we have clear and credible accounts of all these matters.

Her chapter thus highlights the important role that philosophy can play in both psychology and artificial intelligence by further clarifying the constructs involved.