The Idea of Creativity

Seventeen philosophers, scientists and artists consider questions about the intriguing idea of creativity: Is creativity essentially mysterious? Is creativity essentially inspirational or rationalistic? What role does skill play in creativity? What are the criteria of creativity? Should we assign logical priority to creative persons, creative processes, or creative products? How do forms of creativity relate to different domains of human activity? How does creativity relate to self-transformation? How does our knowledge of the circumstances of creativity effect our appreciation of its products? Can a recipient of a creative work also be a creator of it?

Contributors include: Margaret Boden, Larry Briskman, John M. Carvalho, David Davies, Berys Gaut,Rom Harré, Carl R. Hausman, Albert Hofstadter, Arthur Koestler, Michael Krausz, Peter Lamarque, Thomas Leddy, Paisley Livingston, Michael Polany, Dean Keith Simonton, and Francis Sparshott.

Michael Krausz (Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1969) is the Milton C. Nahm Professor of Philosophy at Bryn Mawr College. He is author of Rightness and Reasons; Varieties of Relativism (with Rom Harré), Limits of Rightness; and Interpretation and Transformation.

Denis Dutton is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Publications include The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Natural Selection. He edits the Journal Philosophy and Literature and Arts & Letters Daily.

Karen Bardsley, PhD (McGill, 2004) Currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Morehead State University. Her research interests include philosophy of film, philosophy of mind, aesthetics, and ethics. In ethics, she has written on the rationality of feelings of gratitude toward nature.