function follows form; form follows design

The topic of creativity presents a very challenging subject to study.  Indeed, Margaret Boden, a professor of cognitive science at the University of Sussex who studies creativity from various perspectives, says that, next to consciousness, it is the most challenging phenomenon to make sense of in a materialistic world.¹  Why is that?  We have a sound and straightforward etymological foundation for the word.  What is it that makes it so difficult to study?

Simply put, the word create means to produce or make something.  Create, in the intransitive sense, is to be creative meaning to have the quality of being able to create.  The “-ity” suffix forms a noun from an adjective.  Thus, we can say straightforward, that creativity is the possessed state, property and/or quality of being able to produce or make something.

Part of the challenge comes from the field itself.²  As with most fledgling fields of study, there are many personalities each with distinct ideas about the topic.  So, there are as many definitions of creativity coming from various academic domains.  For instance, we find definitions of creativity in the literature of business, cognitive science, computer science and artificial intelligence, the arts and also within education.³ The straightforward definition given here is an oversimplification of the entry on the word create in Webster’s Dictionary.

Another challenge comes from questions regarding the mechanism of creativity.  Whatever the definition of it, how does it happen?  How are creative acts achieved?  Why are some people apparently more creative than others?  What is the neurophysiology of creative behavior?

Also, is creativity possible outside of a social context?  Can the process of creativity be defined mathematically?

For, if so, then that process can be computed.

1.  http://philosophytalk.org/pastShows/Creativity.html [↩]
2. Parkhurst, H. B. (1999). Confusion, Lack of Consensus, and the Definition of Creativity as a Construct. Journal Of Creative Behavior, 33(1), 1-21. [↩]
3.  http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/creativity/define.htm [↩]