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The Future of
Post-Human Creative Thinking
The Future of
Post-Human Creative Thinking A Preface to a New Theory
of Invention and Innovation
By
Peter Baofu
CAMBRIDGE SCHOLARS PUBLISHING
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking, by Peter Baofu
This book first published 2009
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2009 by Peter Baofu
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-0488-6, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-0488-2
_______________________________________
To Those Beyond Convergent and Divergent Thinking
.
________________________________________
BOOKS ALSO BY PETER BAOFU
Category I: Social Sciences and Related Fields
● The Future of Post-Human Mass Media (2009)
● The Rise of Authoritarian Liberal Democracy (2007)
● Beyond the World of Titans, and the Remaking of World Order (2007)
● Beyond Capitalism to Post-Capitalism (2005)
● Volume 1: Beyond Democracy to Post-Democracy (2004)
● Volume 2: Beyond Democracy to Post-Democracy (2004)
● The Future of Capitalism and Democracy (2002)
Category II: Natural Sciences and Related Fields
● The Future of Post-Human Engineering (2009)
● The Future of Post-Human Unconsciousness (2008)
● The Future of Complexity (2007)
● Beyond Nature and Nurture (2006)
● The Future of Post-Human Space-Time (2006)
● The Future of Post-Human Consciousness (2004)
Category III: Formal Sciences and Related Fields
● The Future of Post-Human Mathematical Logic (2008)
● The Future of Information Architecture (2008)
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking
viii
Category IV: The Humanities and Related Fields
● The Future of Post-Human Knowledge (2008)
● The Future of Aesthetic Experience (2007)
● Beyond Civilization to Post-Civilization (2006)
● Volume 1: The Future of Human Civilization (2000)
● Volume 2: The Future of Human Civilization (2000)
CONTENTS
List of Tables...................................................................................................... xi
Foreword......................................................................................................... xvii
Acknowledgments............................................................................................. xix
List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................ xxi
Part One: Introduction
Chapter One. Introduction—The Wonder of Creative Thinking ........................ 3
The Fashionable Nonsense on Creative Thinking........................................ 3 The Multiple Dimensions of Creativity ....................................................... 4 Creativity, Invention, and Innovation .......................................................... 5 The Theoretical Debate................................................................................ 6 The Comprehensive Theory of Creativity.................................................. 12 Theory and Meta-Theory ........................................................................... 13
The Logic of Existential Dialectics............................................................ 13 Sophisticated Methodological Holism ....................................................... 33 Chapter Outline.......................................................................................... 39 Three Clarifications ................................................................................... 40
Part Two: Invention
Chapter Two. Invention and Its Risk .............................................................. 109
The Exploration of Invention ................................................................. 109
Invention and the Mind............................................................................ 109
Invention and Nature................................................................................ 118
Invention and Society .............................................................................. 129
Invention and Culture .............................................................................. 146
The Uncertainty of Invention .................................................................. 163
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking
x
Part Three: Innovation
Chapter Three. Innovation and Its Costs ......................................................... 175
The Transformation of Innovation........................................................... 175
Innovation and the Mind.......................................................................... 175
Innovation and Nature.............................................................................. 182
Innovation and Society ............................................................................ 195
Innovation and Culture ............................................................................ 212
The Downsides of Innovation .................................................................. 229
Part Four: Conclusion
Chapter Four. Conclusion—The Future of Creative Thinking ....................... 241
The Twin Faces of Creative Thinking .................................................... 241
1st Thesis: The Convention-Novelty Principle ......................................... 247
2nd
Thesis: The Absoluteness-Relativeness Principle .............................. 250
3rd Thesis: The Simpleness-Complicatedness Principle........................... 252
4th Thesis: The Openness-Hiddenness Principle ...................................... 253
5th Thesis: The Symmetry-Asymmetry Principle..................................... 254
6th Thesis: The Regression-Progression Principle.................................... 257
7th Thesis: The Post-Human Turn ............................................................ 259
Beyond Convergent and Divergent Thinking .......................................... 260
Bibliography ................................................................................................... 331
Index................................................................................................................ 341
TABLES
Category I. The Theoretical Debate on Creative Thinking
Table 1.1. The Multiple Dimensions of Creativity.........................................42
Table 1.2. Creativity, Invention, and Innovation ...........................................43
Table 1.3. The Theoretical Debate on Creative Thinking ..............................45
Table 2.1. The Psychological Stages of Creativity ......................................165
Table 2.2. The Debate on the Patent System................................................166
Table 2.3. The Debate on the Biological Theory of Creativity
and Madness...............................................................................168
Table 2.4. The Possibilities of Invention, and Its Limits..............................171
Table 3.1. Economic Properties of the Creative Industries ..........................230
Table 3.2. Computer Supported Cooperative Work.....................................231
Table 3.3. The Debate on Intuitive Inspiration ............................................232
Table 3.4. The Promises of Innovation, and Its Pitfalls ...............................236
Table 4.1. Creative Techniques and Traits...................................................263
Table 4.2. The Desirability of Creativity, and Its Dark Sides ......................264
Table 4.3. Creative Potential and the Average Individual............................266
Category II: Visions on Nature
Table 1.4. The Theoretical Debate on Space-Time........................................53
Table 1.5. The Technological Frontiers of the Micro-World .........................55
Table 1.6. Theoretical Speculations of Multiverses .......................................56
Table 1.7. Main Reasons for Altering Space-Time . ......................................57
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking
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Category III: Visions on the Mind
Table 1.8. The Conceptual Dimensions of Consciousness
(and Other Mental States) ............................................................58
Table 1.9. The Theoretical Levels of Consciousness
(and Other Mental States) ............................................................59
Table 1.10. The Thematic Issues of Consciousness
(and Other Mental States) ............................................................62
Table 1.11. Having, Belonging, and Being in Consciousness
(and Other Mental States) ............................................................63
Table 1.12. The Having-Ness of Consciousness
(and Other Mental States) ............................................................64
Table 1.13. The Belonging-Ness of Consciousness
(and Other Mental States) ............................................................65
Table 1.14. The Being-Ness of Consciousness
(and Other Mental States) ............................................................66
Table 1.15. Cognitive Partiality in Different Mental States ............................67
Table 1.16. Emotional Non-Neutrality and Behavioral Alteration
in Different Mental States ............................................................68
Table 1.17. The Limits of Intuition in Unconsciousness.................................69
Table 1.18. The Wealth/Poverty Dialectics in Different Mental States:
The Case of Cognition..................................................................70
Table 1.19. The Wealth/Poverty Dialectics in Different Mental States:
The Case of Emotion and Behavior .............................................71
Table 1.20. The Theoretical Debate on Nature and Nurture ...........................72
Table 1.21. Physical Challenges to Hyper-Spatial Consciousness.................74
Table 1.22. The Theory of Floating Consciousness ........................................75
Table 1.23. The Potential of Unfolding Unconsciousness ..............................77
Table 1.24. The Future Exploration of Unfolding Unconsciousness ..............78
Table 1.25. Posthuman-Ism, Post-Humanism, and Trans-Humanism ............79
Tables
xiii
Category IV. Visions on Society (Socio-Political)
Table 1.26. Beyond the World of Titans, and the Remaking
of World Order.............................................................................80
Table 1.27. The Origins of Authoritarian Liberal Democracy........................81
Table 1.28. The Theory of Post-Democracy I:
The Priority of Freedom over Equality ........................................82
Table 1.29. The Theory of Post-Democracy II:
The Priority of Equality over Freedom .......................................84
Table 1.30. The Theory of Post-Democracy III:
The Transcendence of Freedom and Equality ..............................85
Table 1.31. Democracy, Non-Democracy, and Post-Democracy....................87
Table 1.32. Multiple Causes of the Emergence of
Post-Democracy ...........................................................................90
Table 1.33. Some Clarifications on Post-Capitalism
and Post-Democracy ....................................................................92
Category V. Visions on Society (Socio-Economic)
Table 1.34. The Theory of Post-Capitalism I.1: By Group—
Ex: Spiritual/Communal in the Trans-Feminine Calling..............96
Table 1.35. The Theory of Post-Capitalism I.2: By Nation-State—
Ex: Spiritual/Communal in the Trans-Sinitic Calling .................97
Table 1.36. The Theory of Post-Capitalism I.3: By Region—
Ex: Spiritual/Communal in the Trans-Islamic Calling .................98
Table 1.37. The Theory of Post-Capitalism I.4: By Universe—
Ex: Spiritual/Communal in the Trans-Outerspace Calling ..........99
Table 1.38. The Theory of Post-Capitalism II: Spiritual/
Individualistic in the Post-Human Elitist Calling ......................100
Table 1.39. Capitalism, Non-Capitalism, and Post-Capitalism ....................102
Table 1.40. Multiple Causes of the Emergence of Post-Capitalism..............105
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking
xiv
Category VI: Visions on Methodology
Table 4.4. Sophisticated Methodological Holism. .......................................267
Table 4.5. On Reductionism and Reverse-Reductionism.............................270
Category VII: Visions on Ontology
Table 4.6. The Conception of Existential Dialectics. ...................................273
Table 4.7. The Syntax of Existential Dialectics I:
The Principles.............................................................................275
Table 4.8. The Syntax of Existential Dialectics II:
The Principles as Short Cuts. .....................................................285
Table 4.9. The Syntax of Existential Dialectics III:
The Principles as Family Resemblances. ...................................287
Table 4.10. The Syntax of Existential Dialectics IV:
The Dialectic Constraints Imposed by the Principles.................288
Table 4.11. The Syntax of Existential Dialectics V:
Further Clarifications. ................................................................291
Table 4.12. The Syntax of Existential Dialectics VI:
The Dilemma of Specific vs. General Ontology. .......................293
Table 4.13. The Semantics of Existential Dialectics. ...................................295
Table 4.14. The Pragmatics of Existential Dialectics....................................296
Table 4.15. The Freedom/Unfreedom Dialectics ..........................................298
Table 4.16. The Equality/Inequality Dialectics.............................................301
Table 4.17. The Duality of Oppression in Existential Dialectics:
Oppression and Self-Oppression ................................................303
Table 4.18. The Structure of Existential Dialectics I:
The Freedom/Unfreedom and Equality/Inequality Dialectics ....305
Table 4.19. The Structure of Existential Dialectics II:
The Wealth/Poverty Dialectics...................................................306
Table 4.20. The Structure of Existential Dialectics III:
The Civilization/Barbarity Dialectics.........................................307
Tables
xv
Category VIII: Visions on Culture
Table 4.21. The Theoretical Debate on Civilization .....................................308
Table 4.22. No Freedom Without Unfreedom
in the Civilizing Processes .........................................................309
Table 4.23. No Equality Without Inequality
in the Civilizing Processes .........................................................311
Table 4.24. Five Theses on Post-Civilization................................................313
Table 4.25. Barbarity, Civilization, and Post-Civilization ............................314
Table 4.26. Types of Super Civilization in the Cosmos ...............................315
Table 4.27. The Civilizational Project from Pre-Modernity
to After-Postmodernity ..............................................................317
Table 4.28. Civilizational Holism .................................................................319
Table 4.29. Theories on Civilizational Holism . ...........................................322
Category IX: Visions on History
Table 4.30. The Trinity of Pre-Modernity.....................................................326
Table 4.31. The Trinity of Modernity ...........................................................327
Table 4.32. The Trinity of Post-Modernity ...................................................329
Table 4.33. The Trinity of After-Postmodernity ...........................................330
________________________________________
FOREWORD
The beginning of the 21st century has placed an onus on societies
everywhere—a call for change, a drive for what is new and improved, an urgent
need for progress. And, along with that has come a concomitant call for
creativity to meet that need.
Societies around the world are seeking individuals who possess “out of the
box” thinking, who bring a new view, rather than the “tried and true” role of
traditional caretakers. And, no better example serves as proof than hand-held,
hi-tech telecommunications products that are unveiled at monthly consistencies
with additional features in a palm sized device.
Dr. Peter Baofu has an astute capacity for observing and analyzing
situations that can perplex thoughtful persons in the world. And he is not afraid
to criticize what he sees or to share his reactions with his readers. In the present
volume he dissects the construct of creativity as a value that is currently
uncritically held in such high esteem, thereby allowing the reader to get a better
(more insightful) handle on it.
Sylvan Von Burg
School of Business
George Washington University
________________________________________
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Like many other books of mine, this one is written to challenge
conventional wisdom, this time, on creative thinking, and to propose a new
theory to understand it better.
Because of its political incorrectness, this book receives no external funding
nor help from any formal organization or institution.
My only reward is the amazing feeling to discover something new that the
world has not known.
There is one person, however, whom I deeply appreciate for his foreword,
and he is Sylvan von Burg at George Washington University School of
Business,.
In any event, I bear the sole responsibility for the ideas presented in this
book.
________________________________________
ABBREVIATIONS
ALD = Peter Baofu. 2007. The Rise of Authoritarian Liberal Democracy: A
Preface to a New Theory of Comparative Political Systems. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Ltd.
BCIV = Peter Baofu. 2006. Beyond Civilization to Post-Civilization:
Conceiving a Better Model of Life Settlement to Supersede Civilization.
NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
BCPC = Peter Baofu. 2005. Beyond Capitalism to Post-Capitalism: Conceiving
a Better Model of Wealth Acquisition to Supersede Capitalism. NY: The
Edwin Mellen Press.
BDPD1 = Peter Baofu. 2004. Volume 1. Beyond Democracy to Post-
Democracy: Conceiving a Better Model of Governance to Supersede
Democracy. NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
BDPD2 = Peter Baofu. 2004. Volume 2. Beyond Democracy to Post-
Democracy: Conceiving a Better Model of Governance to Supersede
Democracy. NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
BNN = Peter Baofu. 2006. Beyond Nature and Nurture: Conceivng a Better
Way to Understand Genes and Memes. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, Ltd.
BWT = Peter Baofu. 2007. Beyond the World of Titans, and the Renaking of
World Order: A Preface to a New Logic of Empire-Building. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Ltd.
FAE = Peter Baofu. 2007. The Future of Aesthetic Experience: Conceiving a
Better Way to Understand Beauty, Ugliness and the Rest. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Ltd.
FC = Peter Baofu. 2007. The Future of Complexity: Conceiving a Better Way to
Understand Order and Chaos. London, United Kingdom: World Scientific
Publishing Co.
FCD = Peter Baofu. 2002. The Future of Capitalism and Democracy. MD: The
University Press of America.
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking
xxii
FHC1 = Peter Baofu. 2000. Volume 1. The Future of Human Civilization. NY:
The Edwin Mellen Press.
FHC2 = Peter Baofu. 2000. Volume 2. The Future of Human Civilization. NY:
The Edwin Mellen Press.
FIA = Peter Baofu. 2008. The Future of Information Architecture: Conceiving a
Better Way to Understand Taxonomy, Network, and Intelligence. Oxford,
England: Chandos Publishing (Oxford) Limited.
FPHC = Peter Baofu. 2004. The Future of Post-Human Consciousness. NY: The
Edwin Mellen Press.
FPHCT = Peter Baofu. 2009. The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking: A
Preface to a New Theory of Invention and Innovation. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Ltd.
FPHE = Peter Baofu. 2009. The Future of Post-Human Engineering: A Preface
to a New Theory of Technology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, Ltd.
FPHK = Peter Baofu. 2008. The Future of Post-Human Knowledge: A Preface
to a New Theory of Methodology and Ontology. Oxford, England: Chandos
Publishing (Oxford) Limited.
FPHML = Peter Baofu. 2008. The Future of Post-Human Mathematical Logic:
A Preface to a New Theory of Rationality. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, Ltd.
FPHMM = Peter Baofu. 2009. The Future of Post-Human Mass Media: A
Preface to a New Theory of Technology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, Ltd.
FPHST = Peter Baofu. 2006. The Future of Post-Human Space-Time:
Conceivng a Better Way to Understand Space and Time. New York: Peter
Lang Publishing, Inc.
FPHU = Peter Baofu. 2008. The Future of Post-Human Unconsciousness: A
Preface to a New Theory of Anomalous Experience. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Ltd.
• PART ONE •
________________________________________
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION—THE SEDUCTION
OF CREATIVE THINKING
_____________________________________
Everyone can be creative, even if you don’t
always feel that way. Don’t accept “I’m just
not creative” as an answer. People have to
believe in themselves to think creatively in a
successful way.
—CSUS (2008)
The Fashionable Nonsense on Creative Thinking
What exactly makes creative thinking so magical that, somehow, “everyone
can be creative” and, by implication, creativity is a good thing to have—to the
point that this popular view is fast becoming a fashionable nonsense in this day
and age of ours?
To put things in a historical perspective—this popular view contrasts
sharply with the opposing view in the older days (e.g., during the Enlightenment
and Romantic eras), when people used to think that creativity was primarily for
the selected few with extraordinary abilities. (S. Mizrach 2008; WK 2008o).
Contrary to the respective conventional wisdom in each of the two opposing
eras, neither of the two views is valid. Ours is no more so than theirs.
This is not to imply, of course, that there are only a few instances of
creativity in human history, or, in reverse, that creativity can be equally taught
to everyone—and, for that matter, that there is absolutely nothing good about
creativity. Obviously, extreme views like this are far from the truth.
The point in this book, however, is to show an alternative (better) way to
understand the nature of creative thinking, which goes beyond both convergent
and divergent thinking, while learning from them all.
In the end, there is nothing intrinsically good (or bad) about “creative
thinking”—just as there is nothing essentially good (or evil) about “God,” “the
king,” or the like, by analogy. They have all been used and misused in
accordance to the interests and powers that be over the ages.
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking
4
If true, this seminal view will fundamentally change the way that we think
about the nature of imagination and intuition, with its enormous implications for
the future of invention and innovation, in a small sense, and what I originally
called its “post-human” fate, in a large one.
The Multiple Dimensions of Creativity
At the outset, the word “creativity” has its etymological root in 14th
-century
Latin, from “creatus, past participle of creare,” which means “to grow” or “to
bring into existence.” (MWD 2008)
Over time, the word has evolved into different meanings. In fact, C. W.
Taylor (1998) once went so far as to collect and identify more than 60 different
definitions of creativity. (WK 2008)
To add some more confusion to the literature, creativity can even be known
by different names (e.g., “lateral thinking,” “divergent thinking,” “flexible
thinking,” “thinking outside the box,” “fluid intelligence,” or even “TRIZ”).
(WK 2008, 2008a, & 2008b; TRIZ 2004)
With this caveat in mind—creativity, not surprisingly, is not monolithic,
since it has appeared in all shapes and sizes.
For instance, creativity can be about a “trait” (e.g., “that some people have
and others do not”), a person (e.g., who engages in creative work), a “state”
(e.g., “that people sometimes enter into”), a “product” (e.g., that “creativity”
produces), a “process” (e.g., where creativity can occur in stages like what
Graham Wallas and Richard Smith once called “preparation,” “incubation,”
“intimation,” “illumination,” and “verification”), a “creative technique” (e.g.,
Alex Osborn's “brainstorming,” Genrikh Altshuller's “TRIZ,” and Edward de
Bono's “lateral thinking”), or an environment (e.g., an “inventive organization”).
(S. Harnad 2008; WK 2008; G. Wallas 1926; A. Osborn 1948; E de Bono 1992;
D. Hughes 1998; J. Mauzy 2003)
Creativity can also be “eminent” (viz., “'recognized' or 'ingenious,' e.g.,
Einstein's creativity; sometimes referred to as 'Creativity' with a capital C)” or,
conversely, “mundane” (or less important, that is, creativity with a small c).
(WK 2008c) In fact, creativity with the capital C can also be called “radical,” or
even, “revolutionary” creativity—while creativity with a small c can likewise be
known as “incremental,” or “small” creativity.
These multiple dimensions of creativity are summarized in Table 1.1.
Chapter 1: Introduction—The Seduction of Creative Thinking
5
Creativity, Invention, and Innovation
Creativity, in addition, can also be understood in relation to the faculties of
imagination and intuition, which make creative thinking possible in the first
place.
After all, what is creative has much to do with the ability to think
“analogously” (as in imagination) or “intuitively” (as in intuition), just to cite
two instances (as there are others too, of course). (S. Harnad 2008)
In this sense, what is creative is not about the ability to think logically (as in
deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning), or, for that matter, to learn by rote
memory or to imitate blindly, for instance. (S. Harnad 2008)
Imagination and intuition can be more deeply analyzed, when put in the
context of invention and innovation, in relation to creativity.
Yet, one should not confuse the three terms (viz., creativity, invention, and
innovation), although they are closely related.
Firstly, creativity, in one definition, refers to “the act of producing new
ideas,” or, in another one, “a mental process involving the generation of new
ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing
ideas or concepts.” (WK 2008)
Secondly, innovation, on the other hand, is “the process of both generating
and applying such creative ideas in some specific context.” (WK 2008) For
instance, “[i]n economics the change must increase value, customer value, or
producer value. The goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or
something better. Innovation leading to increased productivity is the
fundamental source of increasing wealth in an economy.” (WK 2008d)
And thirdly, invention, however, is often contrasted with “innovation,”
since the former refers to “an idea made manifest” (especially, though not
exclusively, in the arts), whereas the latter means “ideas applied successfully”
(especially, though not exclusively, in “economics, business, technology,
sociology, and engineering,” for instance). (WK 2008d; M. Mckeown 2008;
WK 2008e).
Thus, invention is “a highly creative process” and when it “gets out into the
world,” it becomes “innovation.” (WK 2008e)
In other words, both invention and innovation involve creativitiy. Yet, what
is inventive, for instance, is creative, but what is creative may not be inventive
(as it may be innovative instead). The same is true for the relationship between
creativity and innovation.
Or to put it yet in another different way, when creativity is ideational and
original, it becomes inventive, but when creativity is applied and useful, it
becomes innovative.
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking
6
The Theoretical Debate
With this distinction among creativity, invention, and innovation (as
summarized in Table 1.2) in mind—the next business to do is to introduce
different theoretical approaches in the literature on creativity.
Four main theoretical approaches can be summarized hereafter (and in
Table 1.3), as a way to introduce the complicated theoretical debate on creativty,
with the fourth to be my original contribution to the literature).
In the absence of better words, these four theoretical approaches can be
called, namely, (a) the bio-psychological argument, (b) the socio-cultural
argument, (c) the serendipitous argument, and (d) the comprehesnive
argument—to be addressed hereafter, respectively (and summarized in Table
1.3).
The Bio-Psychological Argument
Firstly, a main theoretical approach focuses more on both biological and
psychological factors and can be called, in the absence of better words, the bio-
psychological argument.
This bio-pschological argument can be divided into two major camps,
which can be labeled, in the absence of better words, namely, (a) the view on
innateness and (b) the view on the unconscious mind.
The View on Innateness
The view on innateness consider creativity as biological in origin, in that it
is hard-wired in the brain and is unevenly distributed by way of a genetic
lottery, to the extent that those who are creative are biologically more endowed
with creative abilities than those who are not so creative (or even not at all in
other cases).
For instance, in one version of this view, Charles Peirce proposed the
existence of “abduction,” which is a third thinking process besides “induction”
and “deduction,” whereby “people find the right generalization from
considering sample cases even though the probability of finding it is much too
low.” (S. Harnad 2008)
For Peirce, “the reason we succeed so often in finding improbable
generalizations is that the solutions are somehow already built into our brains.
Hence, according to this view, creativity is a kind of 'remembering,' much the
way Plato thought learning was remembering [anamnesis] (not conscious
remembering in either case, of course). If it is true that the innate patterns of our
brain activity play such a crucial role in creativity, then of course no 'preparation
Chapter 1: Introduction—The Seduction of Creative Thinking
7
is more important than this (evolutionary?) one, and creativity turns out to be in
part an instinctive skill.” (S. Harnad 2008)
This biological instinctive skill allows the creative mind to work creatively
in two major ways, namely, either (a) by “eliminating many of the possible false
starts we could take by rendering them (literally) unthinkable in the first place,”
or (b) by guiding it “in how…[to] select and evaluate the possibilities.” (S.
Harnad 2008)
This is not necessarily to assume, however, that the evolutionary process for
creative thought must be Darwinian for nautral selection. As Liane Gabora
(2005) critically pointed out, “[s]election theory does not provide us with a
formal description of how creative thought evolves, not only because of the oft-
cited assumption of randomness, but because of the requirement that we
enumerate up front all possible alternatives, and the impossibility of describing
situations wherein the outcome emerges spontaneously through interaction
between problem constraints and context. But this does not necessarily mean
that creative thought is not an evolutionary process,” but that “creative thought
could evolve without natural selection. First…evolution need not be Darwinian.
Then…creative thought may fit into a more general, encompassing description
of evolution as context-driven actualization of potential.”
Even with this qualification—the problem in relation to (a) is that “it seems
to attribute too much specific innate structure to the mind (and in this respect it
has an element of the magical view). Since language, logic and the mechanical
sampling of possible variations by trial and error seem to allow us to conceive
of so much, it is hard to see how the first form of abduction—limits on what is
conceivable—could have much of a role. The problem of creativity seems to
begin once we take the vast array of conceivable alternatives as given: How do
we then find the 'right' ones?” (S. Harnad 2008)
And the problem in relation to (b) is that “it is unclear to what extent this
'guidance' function, the one involved in hunches, conjectures, intuition, etc.
(whatever they are), is an innate, evolutionary one, arising from the structure of
our minds, rather than an effect of experience, preparation, analogy and even
chance.” (S. Harnad 2008)
In the end, this “abduction view seems to attribute too much to innate
structure without giving any explanation of its nature and origins.” (S. Harnad
2008)
The View on the Unconscious Mind
There is another version of the bio-psychological argument, in that
creativity is “the working of the 'unconscious mind'”—which is something that
Jacques Hadamard (1954) on mathematical invention and Sigmund Freud on the
psychoanalysis of creativity had propounded.
The Future of Post-Human Creative Thinking
8
This “magical” version of the bio-psychological argument “offers no real
explanation of the creative process, merely attributing it to a mysterious (and
very creative) unconscious mind.” (S. Harnad 2008)
Their concern here is that “for a time one works consciously on a problem,
and when one fails, one's unconscious mind somehow continues and
mysteriously accomplishes what the conscious one could not.” (S. Harnard
2008)
But the problem here, then, is that “[f]rom the perspective of modern
cognitive science this is not very helpful, because all cognitive processes are
unconscious, and as such, require an explanation, not merely an
anthropomorphic attribution to another, wiser (or more primitive) mind
analogous to the conscious one.” (S. Harnard 2008)
Yet, the good part of this “magical” view is that it points us “to the
incompleteness of the role of conscious, deliberate efforts in the creative
process. Note, however, that Pasteur's dictum had already indicated that
preparation was necessary but not sufficient….Moreover, 'conscious, deliberate
effort' is not even sufficient to explain such altogether uncreative cognitive
activities as remembering a name, recognizing a face or adding two and two.”
(S. Harnad 2008)
So, if the bio-psychological argument is problematic, then what alternative
one is available?
The Socio-Cultural Argument
An alternative argument, then, opposes the first and can be called, in the
absence of better words, the socio-cultural argument.
The socio-cultural argment can be summarized below by way of two good
examples, namely, (a) the view on preparation and (b) the view on creative
principles, to be addressed hereafter.
The View on Preparation
This version of the socio-cultural argument focuses more on the process of
“preparation” to learn what has been handed down to culture and society as
“conventions,” wherefrom the creative leap can take off. (S. Harnad 2008)
Louis Pasteur put it well, when he said that “le hasard favorise l'esprit
prepare” (that is, in English, “chance favors the prepared mind”). (S. Harnad
2008)
For Pasteur, although “[there is a (perhaps very large) element of chance in
creativity,…it is most likely to occur if the mind is somehow prepared for it.
Context shows that by 'preparation' Pasteur did not mean being born with the
'creative' trait. He meant that existing knowledge and skills relevant to the