Th e Philosophy of Creativity oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd i 12/3/2013 12:33:59 PM oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd ii 12/3/2013 12:33:59 PM 1 Th e Philosophy of Creativity New Essays E D I T E D B Y E L L I O T S A M U E L P A U L and S C O T T B A R RY K A U F M A N oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd iii 12/3/2013 12:33:59 PM 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitt ed, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitt ed by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Th e philosophy of creativity: new essays/edited by Elliot Samuel Paul and Scott Barry Kaufman. pages cm ISBN 978–0–19–983696–3 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Creative ability 2. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) 3. Philosophy. I. Paul, Elliot Samuel, editor of compilation. B105.C74P53 2014 128'.3-dc23 2013026833 ISBN: 9780199836963 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd iv 12/3/2013 12:33:59 PM To my mother, Eugenia Jeanilia Paul, with the greatest love and gratitude for being the very model of wisdom, grace, and creativity-and for teaching me to read. - ESP To two of my best fr iends, Elliot Samuel Paul and Benjamin Irvine, who have deepened my appreciation for the value of philosophy. -SBK oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd v 12/3/2013 12:34:00 PM oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd vi 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM C O N T E N T S PA RT ONE INTRODUCTION Introducing Th e Philosophy of Creativity 3 ELLIOT SAMUEL PAUL AND SCOTT BARRY KA UFMAN PA RT T W O THE CON CEP T OF CRE ATIVIT Y 1. An Experiential Account of Creativity 17 b e n c e n a n ay PART THREE AESTHETICS AND PHILOSOPH Y OF ART 2. Creativity and the Insight that Literature Brings 39 g r e g o r y c u r r i e 3. Th e Creative Audience: Some Ways in which Readers, Viewers, and/or Listeners Use their Imaginations to Engage Fictional Artworks 62 n o ë l c a r r o l l 4. Musical Style and the Philosophy of Mind 82 c h r i s t o p h e r p e a c o c k e PA RT FO U R ETHICS AND VALUE THEORY 5. Performing Oneself 105 o w e n f l a n a g a n oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd vii 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM C onte nt sviii 6. Creativity as a Virtue of Character 125 m at t h e w k i e r a n PA RT F I V E PHILOSOPH Y OF MIND AND CO GNITIVE SCIEN CE 7. Creativity and Not-So-Dumb Luck 147 s i m o n b l a c k b u r n 8. Th e Role of Imagination in Creativity 157 d u s t i n s t o k e s 9. Creativity and Consciousness: Evidence from Psychology Experiments 185 r o y f . b a u m e i s t e r , b r a n d o n j . s c h m e i c h e l , a n d c . n at h a n d e wa l l 10. Th e Origins of Creativity 199 e l i z a b e t h p i c c i u t o a n d p e t e r c a r r u t h e r s 11. Creativity and Artifi cial Intelligence: A Contradiction in Terms? 224 m a r g a r e t a . b o d e n PA RT SI X PHILOSOPH Y OF SCIEN CE 12. Hierarchies of Creative Domains: Disciplinary Constraints on Blind Variation and Selective Retention 247 d e a n k e i t h s i m o n t o n PA RT SE V E N PHILOSOPH Y OF EDUC ATION (AND EDUC ATION OF PHILOSOPH Y) 13. Educating for Creativity 265 b e r y s g a u t 14. Philosophical Heuristics and Philosophical Creativity 288 a l a n h á j e k oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd viii 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM L I S T O F C O N T R I B U T O R S Roy F. Baumeister Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology (Florida State University) Simon Blackburn Distinguished Research Professor (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Professor of Philosophy (Cambridge University) Margaret A. Boden Research Professor of Cognitive Science (University of Sussex) Noël Carroll Distinguished Professor of Philosophy (Graduate Center of the City University of New York) Peter Carruthers Professor of Philosophy (University of Maryland) Gregory Currie Professor of Philosophy (University of York) C. Nathan DeWall Associate Professor of Psychology (University of Kentucky) Owen Flanagan James B. Duke Professor and Professor of Neurobiology (Duke University) Berys Gaut Professor of Philosophy (University of St. Andrews) Alan Hájek Professor of Philosophy (Australian National University) Scott Barry Kaufman Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology (New York University) Matt hew Kieran Professor of Philosophy and the Arts (University of Leeds) Bence Nanay BOF Research Professor (University of Antwerp) and Senior Research Associate (Cambridge University) Elliot Samuel Paul Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Barnard College, Columbia University) oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd ix 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM Li st o f C ont r ib utorsx Christopher Peacocke Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy (Columbia University) and Wollheim Professor of Philosophy (University College London) Elizabeth Picciuto Adjunct Professor of Philosophy (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) Dean Keith Simonton Distinguished Professor of Psychology (University of California, Davis) Brandon J. Schmeichel Professor of Psychology (Texas A&M University) Dustin Stokes Assistant Professor of Philosophy (University of Utah) oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd x 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM P A RT O N E INTRODUCTION oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 1 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 2 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM 3 Introducing Th e Philosophy of Creativity E L L I OT S A M U E L PAU L A N D S COT T B A R RY K AU F M A N Th ere is litt le 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 vehicle 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 since it raises such a wealth of interesting philosophical questions, as we will soon see. Curiously, it isn't. To be sure, some of the greatest philosophers in history have been taken with the wonder of creativity. 1 To name just few examples: Plato has Socrates say, in certain dialogues, that when poets produce truly great poetry, they do it not through knowledge or mastery, but rather by being divinely "inspired"-literally, breathed into- by the Muses, in a state of possession that exhibits a kind of madness. 2 Aristotle, in contrast, characterized the work of the poet as a rational, goal-directed activity of making ( poeisis ), in which the poet employs various means (such as sympathetic characters and plots involving twists of fate) to achieve an end (of eliciting various emotions in the audience). 3 Kant conceived of artistic genius as an innate capacity 1 Or what we now call "creativity." According to some scholars, that abstract noun did not exist in European languages until the 19 th century-but the phenomenon, and interest in it, certainly did. (See, e.g. Władysław Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: An Essay in Aesthetics (Th e Hague, NL: Martinus Nijhoff , 1980), esp. chapter 8.) For other discussions of the complex history of terms and concepts associated with creativity, see, e.g., Darrin M. McMahon, Divine Fury: A History of Genius . Perseus Books Group, 2013; Murray, Penelope, ed. Genius: Th e history of an idea . New York: Basil Blackwell, 1989; Milton Charles Nahm, Genius and Creativity: An Essay in the History of Ideas . Harper & Row, 1965. 2 Plato, Ion and Phaedrus , in Th e Complete Works of Plato, eds. John M. Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson (Hackett Publishing, 1997). Cf. Elizabeth Asmis, "Plato on Poetic Creativity," in Th e Cambridge Companion to Plato , ed. Richard Kraut (Cambridge University Press, 1992). 3 Aristotle, Poetics , in Th e Complete Works of Aristotle: Th e Revised Oxford Translation , vol. II, ed. Jonathan Barnes (Princeton University Press, 1984). For a sophisticated defense of the Aristotelian oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 3 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM I n t r o d u c t i o n4 to produce works of "exemplary originality" through the free play of the imagination, a process which does not consist in following rules, can neither be learned nor taught, and is mysterious even to geniuses themselves. 4 Schopenhauer stressed that the greatest artists are distinguished not only by the technical skill they employ in the production of art, but also by the capacity to "lose themselves" in the experience of what is beautiful and sublime. 5 Nietzsche saw the greatest feats of creativity, exemplifi ed in the tragic poetry of ancient Greece, as being born out of a rare cooperation between the "Dionysian" spirit of ecstatic intoxication, which imbues the work with vitality and passion, and the "Apollonian" spirit of sober restraint, which tempers chaos with order and form. 6 Th is is just the barest glimpse of what each of these philosophers had to say about creativity, and many other fi gures could be added to their number. Nevertheless, while some of the topics explored by earlier thinkers have come to occupy a central place in philosophy today-such as freedom, justice, consciousness, and knowledge-creativity is not among them. Philosophy has seen some very important work on creativity in the last few decades, 7 but not nearly at the rate that we see for subjects of comparable range and importance. Indeed, "the philosophy of creativity" is still a neologism in most quarters-just as, for example, "the philosophy of action" and "the philosophy of music" were not too long ago. In contrast, psychology has seen a defi nite surge of interest in creativity. In 1950, J. P. Guilford gave a presidential address at the American Psychological Association calling for research on the topic. 8 And the fi eld 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 collective creativity; the range of institutional, educational, and environmental factors that enhance or inhibit creativity; and more. Today, the blossoming of this fi eld can be seen in the fl urry of popular writing reporting on its results 9 ; an offi cial division of the American idea that the creative process is fundamentally rational, see Gaut, Berys. "Creativity and Rationality." Th e Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 70, no. 3 (2012): 259-270. 4 Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment , eds. Eric Matt hew and Paul Guyer (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 43–50 5 Arthur Schopenhauer, Th e World as Will and Representation , vols. I and II, trans. E. F. J. Payne (New York: Dover, 1969). See vol. I, pp. 184–194, and vol. II, pp. 376–402. 6 Friedrich Nietzsche, Th e Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings , eds. Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs (Cambridge University Press, 1999). 7 Samples of this work can be found in these two collections: Michael Krausz, Denis Dutt on, and Karen Bardsley, Th e Idea of Creativity (Boston: Brill, 2009); and Th e Creation of Art: New Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics , eds. Berys Gaut and Paisley Livingston (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003). 8 J. P. Guilford, "Creativity," in American Psychologist 5 (1950), pp. 444–454. 9 See, e.g., the psychology section of Th e Creativity Post : htt p://www.creativitypost.com/psychology . oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 4 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM Int rod u c i ng Th e P hi l os ophy o f Cre at iv i t y 5 Psychological Association on the psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts (Division 10); numerous academic conferences; multiple peer-reviewed journals 10 ; several textbooks 11 ; and a growing number of undergraduate and graduate courses all devoted to the psychology of creativity. According to one historical overview, creativity has been studied by nearly all of the most eminent psychologists of the 20th century, and "the fi eld can only be described as explosive." 12 Th e swell of interest in the science of creativity is an inspiring example for the philosophy of creativity, but more importantly, it off ers a resource that philosophers should be mindful of as they pursue this eff ort. Unfortunately, philosophers writing on creativity have sometimes tended to ignore the scientifi c literature. In some cases, they have gone so far as to claim-aft er citing just a few studies-that creativity is by its very nature unpredictable and therefore beyond the scope of science. 13 Although the question of whether creativity is explicable is a philosophical question, it is not one that is impervious to empirical work. Aft er all, anyone who declares from the armchair that something cannot be explained is liable to be refuted in the event that researchers do fi nd ways to uncover explanations. Th e question of whether creativity can be explained empirically is itself, at least partly, an empirical question. In fact, a number of issues arise at the nexus between philosophy and psychology and are handled best with contributions from both. Th is interdisciplinary approach is embraced by a new school of creativity researchers who are part of much broader trend toward dialogue and collaboration between scientifi cally-minded 10 Psychology of Aesthetics; Creativity and the Arts; Creativity Research Journal; Journal of Creative Behavior; International Journal of Creativity and Problem Solving. 11 J. C. Kaufman, Creativity 101 (New York: Springer, 2009). K. Sawyer, Explaining Creativity: Th e Science of Human Innovation , 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). R. W. Weisberg, Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving, Science, Invention, and the Arts (New York: Wiley, 2006). 12 Robert S. Albert and Mark A. Runco, "A History of Research on Creativity," in Handbook of Creativity , ed. Robert J. Sternberg (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 16–31 at p. 17. 13 Paul Feyerabend, "Creativity-A Dangerous Myth," in Critical Inquiry 13, no. 4 (1987), pp. 700–711; Carl R. Hausman, "Criteria of Creativity," in Th e Concept of Creativity in Science and Art , eds. Denis Dutt on and Michael Krausz (Amsterdam: Springer, 1985), pp. 75–89. Carl R. Hausman, A Discourse On Novelty and Creation (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1975). I. C. Jarvie, "Th e Rationality of Creativity," in Th e Concept of Creativity in Science and Art , eds. Denis Dutt on and Michael Krausz (Amsterdam: Springer, 1985), pp. 109–128. John Hospers, "Artistic Creativity," in Th e Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 43, no. 3 (1985), pp. 243–255. For more optimistic perspectives, see Dustin Stokes, "Incubated Cognition and Creativity," in Journal of Consciousness Studies 14, no. 3 (2007), pp. 83–100. Larry Briskman, "Creative Product and Creative Process in Science and Art," in Inquiry 23, no. 1 (1980), pp. 83–106; and Maria Kronfeldner, "Creativity Naturalized," in Th e Philosophical Quarterly 59, no. 237 (2009), pp. 577–592. oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 5 12/3/2013 12:34:01 PM I n t r o d u c t i o n6 philosophers and philosophically-minded scientists. 14 And the essays in this volume illustrate numerous ways in which the exchange can be fruitful, as philosophers draw on scientifi c research and scientifi c work is informed by philosophical perspectives. Below, we present a bird's-eye view of these chapters and the themes and issues they explore. 15 Th e Concept of Creativity Perhaps the most fundamental question for any study of creativity, philosophical or otherwise, is What is creativity? Th e term "creative" is used to describe three kinds of things: a person , a process or activity , or a product , whether it is an idea in someone's mind or an observable performance or artifact. Th ere 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 lett ers), it must also be of value . (Researchers sometimes express this second condition by saying a product must be "useful," "appropriate," or "eff ective.") 16 Th is defi nition is anticipated, in a way, by Immanuel Kant, who viewed artistic genius as an ability to produce works that are not only original-"since there can be original nonsense"- but also "exemplary." 17 14 For refl ections on diff erent trends in this movement, see Jesse Prinz, "Empirical Philosophy and Experimental Philosophy," in Experimental Philosophy , eds. Joshua Knobe and Shaun Nichols (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); and "Introduction: Philosophy and Cognitive Science" in Th e Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Cognitive Science , eds. Eric Margolis, Richard Samuels, and Stephen P. Stich (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 3–18. Th e chapters of this handbook explore connections between philosophy and cognitive science on various topics. Th e integration is especially pronounced in research on such topics as color perception (e.g., Alex Byrne and David R. Hilbert, "Color Realism and Color Science," in Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26, no. 1 [2003], pp. 3–21) and causal cognition (e.g., Tania Lombrozo, "Causal-Explanatory Pluralism: How intentions, functions, and mechanisms infl uence causal ascriptions," in Cognitive Psychology 61, no. 4 [2010], pp. 303–332). 15 For another survey of the fi eld, see Berys Gaut, "Th e Philosophy of Creativity," in Philosophy Compass 5, no. 12 (2010), pp. 1034–1046. 16 Notable exceptions to this view include Dustin Stokes, "Minimally Creative Th ought," in Metaphilosophy 42, no. 5 (2011), pp. 658–681; and Mark A. Runco, "Parsimonious Creativity and its Measurement," in Measuring Creativity: Proceedings of European Council Meeting On Creativity and Innovation , ed. E. Villalba (Luxembourg: Publications Offi ce of the European Union, 2010), pp. 393– 405, who argue that (at least for certain purposes) it's best to work with a more minimal conception of creativity that involves novelty but doesn't require value. Th ere may also be additional requirements. It has been argued, for example, that in order for a product to count as creative, it must be surprising (Novitz; Boden), or produced intentionally (Gaut), or in a non-mechanical fashion with fl air (Gaut). 17 Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment , eds. Eric Matt hew and Paul Guyer (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 43–50. See also Paul Guyer, "Exemplary Originality: Genius, Universality, and Individuality," in Th e Creation of Art , eds. Berys Gaut and Paisley Livingston (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 116–137. oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 6 12/3/2013 12:34:02 PM Int rod u c i ng Th e P hi l os ophy o f Cre at iv i t y 7 In chapter 1, Bence Nanay argues that creativity is primarily an att ribute not of products, but of mental processes. Some have suggested that what makes a mental process creative is the use of a certain kind of functional or computational mechanism, such as the recombination of old ideas or the transformation of one's conceptual space. Against this view, Nanay off ers what he calls an experiential account of creativity. He contends that what is distinctive about the creative mental process is not any functional/computational mechanism, but the way in which it is experienced. In particular, the process yields an idea that the creator experiences as one she hadn't taken to be possible before. Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art One might suppose that if creativity has been understudied in philosophy at large, this couldn't be so when philosophers are focused on art in particular. Art was long thought to have a monopoly on human creativity 18 ; it is still the paradigm of a creative domain, as "creative" is sometimes used more or less as a synonym for "artistic" and, at least in modern times, artists are disparaged when seen as derivative and praised for originality. But while the philosophy of art has been concerned with such issues as the defi nition, interpretation, and ontology of art, it has tended not to refl ect on the artist as a creator , or the artist's labors as a creative process , or the work of art as an expression of creativity . Th us Gaut and Livingston observe that "[a] lthough the creation of art is a topic that should be a central one for aesthetics, it has been comparatively neglected in recent philosophical writing about art." 19 Gregory Currie brings the issue of creativity to 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 litt le evidence in its favor, and he considers how the claim might be tested. Recent experimental studies by Oatley and colleagues look promising in this regard, but Currie suggests that their results so far provide very weak evidence at best. In the absence of bett er evidence, Currie puts a new spin on the debate by emphasizing the creativity that goes into producing such great works of fi ction. Are there aspects of literary creativity that should reliably lead to insights about the mind? He considers two such aspects-the institutions of literary production and the psychology of literary 18 Władysław Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: An Essay in Aesthetics (Th e Hague, NL: Martinus Nijhoff , 1980), esp. chapter 8. 19 Berys Gaut and Paisley Livingston, "Introduction: Th e Creation of Art: Issues and Perspectives," in Th e Creation of Art: Issues and Perspectives , eds. Berys Gaut and Paisley Livingston (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 1. oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 7 12/3/2013 12:34:02 PM I n t r o d u c t i o n8 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. Noël Carroll brings another dimension of creativity into view in chapter 3. Although he agrees that we should att end 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 eff ects to which she aspires, Carroll argues, the audience must creatively cooperate with what the artist has initiated. He explores how audiences co-create artworks through the play of imagination. Rather than treating the imagination as if it were a single monolithic phenomenon, however, he identifi es and analyzes several diff erent imaginative activities that are engaged in response to a variety of artworks, such as reasoning counterfactually, fi lling-in unspecifi ed content, constructing story-worlds around fi ctional objects, mentally simulating characters' experiences and points of view, and freely devising and playing with diff erent meanings, interpretations, and unifying themes. By means of these activities, Carroll suggests, it is ultimately the audience's contribution that makes a work of art "work." 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 creativity 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 his particular style unless we identify what is distinctive about that musical style. Using the example of the Romantic style of music, Peacocke's approach draws on the perception of expressive action in combination with an account of what is involved in hearing emotion and other mental states in music. Th e account can link the phenomenology of musical 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 distinctive about impressionist music, expressionist music, and some neoclassical composing in the style of Stravinsky. Ethics and Value Th eory One thing that makes creativity such a gripping topic is that we cannot fully understand ourselves without taking it into account. Creativity seems to be linked to our very identity; it is part of what makes us who we are both as human beings and individuals. With regard to the latt er, each of us can ask, "What makes me who I am (as an individual)?" and we might wonder whether the answer has something to do with creativity. oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 8 12/3/2013 12:34:02 PM Int rod u c i ng Th e P hi l os ophy o f Cre at iv i t y 9 According to an ancient and still infl uential view, the self (one's life) is some kind of dramatic or artistic performance. Exploring this idea in chapter 5, Owen Flanagan notes that there are metaphysical and logical questions about whether and how self-creation 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 the self is something that both emerges in and is constituted by that performance. Are there norms or standards that apply to self-constituting performances, and if so, what are they? Flanagan examines three contemporary psychopoetic conceptions of person-"day-by-day persons," "ironic persons," and "strong poetic persons"-in order to explore potential normative constraints on "performing oneself." Flanagan's provocative paper has implications for a number of diverse views in philosophy and psychology, from Jerome Bruner's narrative theory of "self-making stories" to David Velleman's paradox of self-constitution. In chapter 6, Matt hew 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 nothing 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 patt erns 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 diff erently 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 and admire individuals whose creative activity is born from a passion for what they do but, other things being equal, we expect them to be more reliably creative across diff erent situations than those who are extrinsically motivated. Th is is consistent with the recognition that intrinsic motivation is not required to be creative and people's creative potentials diff er. Creativity in people will fl ourish when intrinsic motivation is foregrounded, with the relevant values and socioeconomic structures lining up appropriately. It tends to wither when they do not (unless a person's creativity, like Van Gogh's, is exceptionally virtuous). Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science In chapter 7, Simon Blackburn briefl y remarks on the history of the idea-voiced by Plato, echoed by philosophers and artists in the Romantic tradition, and still present in the popular imagination-that creativity involves something mystical or supernatural. Against this notion, Blackburn draws on fi ndings of modern psychology to off er a tamer view. He argues that even the most extraordinary creative achievements are the result of ordinary cognitive processes. oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 9 12/3/2013 12:34:02 PM I n t r o d u c t i o n10 In chapter 8, Dustin Stokes ventures to clarify exactly what the relation is between creativity and imagination. In his view, imagination is important for even the most minimally creative thought processes. Th is would be a pointless tautology if "imagination" just means (the capacity for) creativity. Th e key, then, is to identify what imagination is such that it is not the same thing as creativity but still essential for it nonetheless. As Stokes notes, few philosophers have thought through the distinction between imagination and creativity, and few psychologists have directly tested the diff erence between the two constructs. While grounding his paper in contemporary philosophy, Stokes also draws on cognitive and developmental psychology to identify the architectural features common to genius-level creativity, as well as more everyday forms of creativity. He starts by making a distinction between "truth-boundedness"-cognitive states that function to accurately represent the world-and "non truth-bound" states that do not function to accurately represent the world, but instead facilitate the manipulation of the information they represent. 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 typifi ed by four features: It is non truth-bound, under immediate voluntary control, engages with aff ective and motivational systems, and drives inference and decisionmaking. Stokes's essay has implications for a number of philosophical problems relating to imagination and fi ction, as well as psychological issues relating to the role of conscious, deliberate thought in creativity. On the latt er question, there is a tendency that appears in various forms throughout intellectual and artistic history to regard conscious thought as irrelevant or even inimical to creativity. In the classical story where creative inspiration comes to an artist from an external muse, the artist's consciousness is not the source, but rather the recipient, of creative work. Th e 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!). Th ere 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 of surrendering conscious control and giving free rein to the creative unconscious. In chapter 9, however, psychologists Roy Baumeister, Brandon Schmeichel, and C. Nathan DeWall suggest that consciousness deserves more creative credit. Th ey 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. Th ey 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 colored pencils while listening closely to music). Th ey conclude that the research contradicts the popular view in both psychology and philosophy that consciousness is irrelevant oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 10 12/3/2013 12:34:02 PM Int rod u c i ng Th e P hi l os ophy o f Cre at iv i t y 11 or an impediment to the creative process. Instead, they believe that the research fi ts 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 of 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 terms of what makes us distinctively human, and set apart from other animals in particular. Whatever we think of the existing proposals that highlight our allegedly unique possession of reason, language, and metacognition, creativity seems as good a candidate as any. Th e tricky question, of course, is how did creativity evolve in humans? In chapter 10, Elizabeth Picciuto and Peter Carruthers provide an integrated evolutionary and developmental account of the emergence of distinctively human creative capacities. Th eir main thesis is that childhood pretend play (e.g., imagining batt ling spaceship invaders) is a uniquely human adaptation that functions in part to enhance adult forms of creativity. In support of their view, they draw on a wide literature spanning evolutionary, cognitive, and developmental psychology. Th ey begin by reviewing evolutionary accounts of what makes humans unique, including our language, enhanced working memory, culture, and convergent and divergent thinking. Th ey consider pretend play as a distinctively human ability, noting its universality, and showing that nearly all children, cross-culturally, engage in it. Th ey review existing views of the functional roles of pretend play, including the facilitation of social schemata and theory of mind. Unconvinced by these accounts, they argue instead that pretend play facilitates creative thought-a process that involves both defocused att ention and cognitive control. Th ey review a number of common capacities of both pretend play and creativity, including generativity, supposing, bypassing the obvious, and selection of valuable but less obvious ideas. Th ey conclude that childhood pretense paves the way for creativity in adulthood. Th is chapter is a fi ne 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, it is not uncommon to think of what makes us human in contrast not only to other animals but also to machines, computers, and robots. Artifi cial intelligence is becoming ever more sophisticated, and some programs already display certain marks of creativity, appearing in major art galleries and garnering patents. Th ese 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 combination, exploration, or transformation involved in producing it. She gives examples of artifi cial intelligence systems that fi t all of these criteria, and raises this intriguing oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 11 12/3/2013 12:34:02 PM I n t r o d u c t i o n12 question: Could a computer-based system ever "really" be creative? Th is leads to interesting philosophical issues about what constitutes "real" creativity. With some qualifi cation, she argues that real creativity involves autonomy, intentionality, valuation, emotion, and consciousness. But as she points out, the problem is that each one of these elements is controversial in itself, even if we don't consider it in relation to creativity and/or artifi cial intelligence. Boden concludes that we will not be able to understand whether creativity and artifi cial intelligence are contradictions in terms until we have clear and credible accounts of all these matt ers. Her chapter thus highlights the important role that philosophy can play in both psychology and artifi cial intelligence by further clarifying the constructs involved. Philosophy of Science Today, it's understood that creativity can be at work in virtually every human pursuit. In the past, however, thinking about creativity tended to be much less inclusive. Once again, Kant is a telling example. Having defi ned genius as the capacity to produce ideas that are both original and exemplary (i.e., "creative" in our terms), he asserted that genius could only be manifested in the fi ne arts. 20 Scientists were not geniuses because they follow the set procedures of the scientifi c method rather than giving free rein to their imaginations. Even Isaac Newton, whom Kant called the "great man of science," was not deemed to be a creative genius. Nor, for that matt er, was Kant himself! Despite the much broader scope that we now accord to creativity, there is still a remnant of the Kantian intuition in popular stereotypes of the creative person that are more strongly associated with the artist than with anyone else. In chapter 12, psychologist Dean Keith Simonton argues, in eff ect, that there is something right about this Kantian tendency, as he explores the question: How does creativity diff er between domains? In so doing, he integrates two philosophical traditions. Th e fi rst tradition, stemming back to Auguste Comte, is concerned with whether the sciences can be arrayed into a hierarchy. Th e second tradition, which includes Alexander Bain and William James, concerns whether creativity and discovery involve a process of blind-variation and selective-retention (BVSR). Th e key part for this issue is blind-variation. Roughly, a process is "blind" to the extent that the probability of it's generating a certain idea is not a function of that idea's utility or value. A completely random procedure would be an example, though not the only example, of a blind process. Drawing on psychological research, Simonton shows that a valid hierarchy can be formed based on objective criteria regarding creative ideas, products, and persons. In place of Kant's stark dichotomy between the sciences and the fi ne 20 Kant (ibid.). oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 12 12/3/2013 12:34:02 PM Int rod u c i ng Th e P hi l os ophy o f Cre at iv i t y 13 arts, Simonton's hierarchy comprises a wide range of disciplines in the sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Where a discipline falls in the hierarchy depends on the extent to which practitioners need to engage in BVSR processes in order to make contributions that are creative (new and useful). Domains at the top of the hierarchy (i.e., sciences) rely more on sighted variations, whereas domains at the bott om (i.e., arts) depend more on blind variations. Simonton also shows that a discipline's position in the hierarchy depends on the characteristics and developmental experiences of the creator. Simonton's chapter is an intriguing synthesis of issues in both psychology and philosophy regarding the classifi cation of creativity across domains. Philosophy of Education (and Education of Philosophy) Our fi nal two chapters deal with the teaching and learning of creativity. It is not unusual to fi nd people who assume that creativity is an innate capacity that cannot be taught or learned. Edward Young and Immanuel Kant were part of a long tradition of thinkers who held such a view, and in arguing for it, they did us the service of exposing the kinds of assumptions that make it seem compelling. In chapter 13, Berys Gaut identifi es two key arguments: Th e fi rst is that learning requires imitation, which is incompatible with creativity; the second is that learning consists in following rules, which is incompatible with creativity. Aft er criticizing these arguments, Gaut develops a positive case for the teachability of creativity, based on the teachability of the kinds of abilities and motivations that are involved in creativity. Th ere is a sense in which Gaut's question can be sett led empirically: We can show that creativity can be taught simply by pointing to cases where it has been taught. Gaut himself discusses such examples as they occur in mathematics and fi ction writing, noting in particular how heuristics or rules of thumb are used in these domains. But while such cases may suffi ce to show that creativity can be taught, Gaut further enriches our understanding by explaining how this is possible despite the common misconceptions that may seem to rule it out. Having given a philosophical account of how creativity can be taught, he ends by applying his analysis to the teaching of creativity within philosophy itself. With this last theme, Gaut has a kindred spirit in Alan Hájek, the author of our fi nal chapter. In fact, between the two of them, we have an instance of "multiples" in creativity research, cases where people working independently arrive at the same discoveries at about the same time. 21 Although Gaut and Hájek were unaware of each other's essays before submitt ing them for this volume, they converged on an interesting proposal-that by using various heuristics, philosophers can enhance 21 Dean Keith Simonton, Creativity in Science: Chance, Logic, Genius, and Zeitgeist (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004). oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 13 12/3/2013 12:34:02 PM I n t r o d u c t i o n14 their abilities to make valuable contributions to their fi eld, including ideas that are distinctively creative. As Hájek notes, it is said that anyone of average talent can become a strong chess player by learning and internalizing certain chess heuristics -"castle early," "avoid isolated pawns," and so on. Analogously, Hájek suggests, philosophy has a wealth of heuristics- philosophical heuristics -although they have not been nearly so well documented and studied. Sometimes these take the form of useful heuristics for generating counterexamples, such as "check extreme cases." Sometimes they suggest ways of generating new arguments out of old ones, as in "arguments involving possibility can oft en be recast as arguments involving time, or space." Sometimes they provide templates for positive arguments (e.g., ways of showing that something is possible). Hájek off ers this chapter partly as an introduction to a larger project of identifying and evaluating philosophical heuristics, illustrating them with numerous examples from the philosophical literature. Th is work is a creative contribution to the philosophy of education. And it off ers insights for the philosophy of creativity too, as it shows in fi ne detail how, contrary to a common assumption, creativity can be compatible with and even enhanced by the following of rules. We are thankful for the input, encouragement, and support of Taylor Carmen, Tamara Day, Michael Della Rocca, Milena Fisher, Eugene Ford, Nancy France, Don Garrett , Tamar Szabó Gendler, Lydia Goehr, Joy Hanson, Markus Labude, Rebecca McMillan, John Morrison, Emily Downing Muller, Fred Neuhouser, Carol Rovane, and our wonderful colleagues and students at Barnard College, Columbia University, and New York University. Special thanks to Liz Boylan, former provost of Barnard College, for generously sponsoring the conference we held on the philosophy of creativity in preparation for this volume. We thank fi lm director Tao Ruspoli for making a video of the event, artists Jill Sigman and Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. "D.J. Spooky") for their participation as special guests, and Geovanna Carrasco, Melissa Flores, and Emily Neil for their excellent work as research assistants. We thank Peter Ohlin, Lucy Randall, Stacey Victor, and their colleagues at Oxford University Press for helping us see this book to print. Last but not least, we are very grateful to our contributors for illustrating the value of interdisciplinary exchange, the intellectual richness of the philosophy of creativity, and the exciting possibilities for how this fi eld can grow. We hope this volume helps to stimulate new insights, questions, and collaborations-new ways to illuminate (and perhaps even to exemplify) this magnifi cent facet of human life. oxfordhb-9780199836963.indd 14 12/3/2013 12:34:03 PM