Abstract
This paper attempts to give a condensed outline of a theory I have set out in detail in my book on creativity and to carry that theory to the next step1. The proposition I shall submit is, in a nutshell, that the conscious and unconscious processes which enter into all three forms of creative activity have a basic pattern in common. And when I speak of three forms of creativity, I mean the domains of artistic originality, scientific discovery, and comic inspiration. I believe that all creative activity falls into one or another of these three categories or, more frequently, into some combination of them. If you speak, for instance, of cooking as “creative,” you automatically imply that cooking is either an art or a science or both.
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Notes
Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation ( New York: Macmillan, 1964 ).
G. De Santillana, Dialogue on the Great World Systems ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953 ), p. 469.
I owe the term “Haha reaction” to Dr. Brennig James’s paper “The Function of Jokes” (unpublished), which he kindly sent me.
For a review of the theories on laughter, see Koestler, The Act of Creation, chaps. 1 and 2; also Koestler, Insight and Outlook (New York: Macmillan, 1949), part 1 and appendix 2.
Cf. Koestler, The Act of Creation, pp. 271, 284; and, for a bibliography on the psychology and physiology of weeping, pp. 725–28.
Ibid., pp. 285–300.
See T.S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962 ); K.R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery ( London: Hutchinson, 1959 ).
See T.S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962 ); K.R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery ( London: Hutchinson, 1959 ).
See E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion ( London: Phaidon Press, 1962 ).
J. Hadamard, The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field ( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949 ).
E. Kris, Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art ( New York: International Universities Press, 1952 ).
P.A.M. Dirac, “Evolution of the Physicist’s Picture of Nature,” Scientific American 208 (1963): 45–53.
Koestler, The Act of Creation, pp. 447–74.
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© 1981 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague/Boston/London
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Koestler, A. (1981). The Three Domains of Creativity. In: Dutton, D., Krausz, M. (eds) The Concept of Creativity in Science and Art. Martinus Nijhoff Philosophy Library, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5083-2_1
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