Hi All,
Well this post will be a little philosophical...so please excuse me! I've been rethinking the definition of creativity since the recent class discussions we have had. I pose the question: Is it possible to be creative without background in a subject? The reason I ask this is because I wounder if an idea can come from nothing, or are all novel ideas just combinations of unrelated concepts? If it is truly the later then could a computer theoretically be creative? If not then what ideas do come from a combination of previous ideas. Consider the invention of the wheel. I'm assuming that a individual who conceived the wheel had the concept of a circle and a stone rolling down a hill. The combination of these ideas would lead someone to think of a wheel. However, are their any alternative interpretation of this combination? E.g could this individual have been lead to an alternative solution given both ideas of the stone and circle? I'll give the example of Darwin's discovery of evolution. Numerous other zoologist's have analyzed the diversity of life and have come to different conclusions than Darwin; however, it was Darwin's solution which was the most reasonable and novel compared to his peers. Therefore perhaps there is a interpretation/analysis component to creativity. You not only need to combine ideas put organize them in a logical fashion. Hence, it may be that intelligence can influence creativity. The question is: what allows individuals to have superior powers at combining seemingly unrelated ideas together? Perhaps those who can store more information can therefore have a greater repository to draw ideas from. Then could it be that hippocampus size has influence on creativity? No doubt there are brain structural features associated with the construct of creativity, perhaps elucidating them would help us generate a more refined definition of creativity.
Give me your thoughts!
Until next time,
Ryan
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