Abstract
But what kind of psychology?
When we approach the subject of creative scientific thought as a problem in cognitive psychology, a host of questions arise: What is the nature of a cognitive structure that can grow through purposeful work? What is the relation between the organization of knowledge in the individual and the organization of knowledge in various scientific collectivities? Does the organization of the individual’s multiple purposes correspond to the organization of his knowledge? Does the study of how a person thinks contribute to our understanding of what he thinks? And vice versa?
“Historical facts are, in essence, psychological facts.” — Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft.1
I am grateful to Martha E. Moore-Russell and to Doris Wallace for their helpful comments on a draft of this paper.
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Notes
Bloch, M., The Historian’s Craft ( Random House, New York, 1953 ), p. 194.
Limoges, C., La sélection naturelle: étude sur la premiere constitution d’un concept (1837–1859) (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1970).
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Moore-Russell, M. E., ‘John Locke: The Development of a Philosopher as a Person- in-Society’, Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society (Philadelphia, 1976 ).
Psychologists attempting to fractionate creativity into component abilities have labelled one factor ‘divergent thinking’, the ability to generate a large number of potential solutions to a problem, usually a simple problem such as, ‘Think of as many uses as possible for a brick’. See Guilford, J. P., The Nature of Human Intelligence (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1967).
Employed with sensitivity, statistical tools might be helpful in detecting unusual events, so that those of us who wish could pursue the rare bird wherever it flies, and study it close at hand.
See Erikson, E. H., Childhood and Society, second edition (W. W. Norton, New York, 1963); Inhelder, B. and Piaget, J., The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence (Basic Books, New York, 1958); Gruber, H. E. and Vonfcche, J. J., ‘Reflexions sur les operations formelles de la pens£e’, Archives de Psychologie 44 (1976), 45–55.
Drake, S., Galileo Studies: Personality, Tradition, and Revolution (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. Mich., 1970 ).
Kramer, H., ‘Writing Writers’ Lives’, New York Times Book Review, May 8, 1977, p. 3.
Steinberg, M., in New York Times Book Review, December 25, 1977, p. 21, review of Solomon, Maynard, Beethoven ( Schirmer/Macmillan, New York, 1977 ).
Friedlander, S., Histoire et psychanalyse: essai sur les possibility et les limit es de la psychohistoire (Seuil, Paris, 1975).
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Erikson, E. H., Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (W. W. Norton, New York, 1958).
Manuel, F. E., A Portrait of Isaac Newton ( Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1968 ).
See for example: Minsky, M. and Papert, SArtificial Intelligence (Condon Lectures, Oregon State System of Higher Education: Eugene, Oregon, 1973 ).
See for example: Kosslyn, S. M., Murphy, G. L., Bemesderfer, M. E., and Feinstein, K. J., ‘Category and Continuum in Mental Comparisons’, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 106 (1977), 341 - 375.
Kuhn, T. S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edition enlarged ( The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970 ).
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Darwin, C.,Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the
Various Countries Visited by H.M.S.Beagle (Colburn, London, 1839).
Darwin, C., Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the World, 2nd edition ( John Murray, London, 1845 ).
Krause, E., Erasmus Darwin, with a preliminary notice by Charles Darwin (Appleton, New York, 1880). [The preliminary notice is a 127 pp. biography. - HEG].
Darwin, C., The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. With original omissions restored (edited and annotated by his grand-daughter Nora Barlow ( Collins, London, 1958 ).
These papers are reprinted in The Collected Papers of Charles Darwin, ed. by Paul H. Barrett, 2 vols. (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1977).
Darwin, C., The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms with Observations on Their Habits ( John Murray, London, 1904 ).
Darwin, C., On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection ( John Murray, London, 1859 ).
Darwin, C., The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex ( John Murray, London, 1871 ).
Gruber, H. E. and Gruber, V., ‘The Eye of Reason: Darwin’s Development during the Beagle Voyage’, Isis 53 (1962), 186-200; Ghiselin, M. T., The Triumph of the Darwinian Method ( University of California Press, Berkeley, 1969 ).
Miller, G. A., Galanter, E., and Pribram, K. H., Plans and the Structure of Behavior (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1960 ).
Holton, G., Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1973). See also, Holton, G., ‘On the Role of Themata in Scientific Thought’, Science 188 (1975), 328 - 334.
Galton, F., Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development ( Dent, London, n.d.; first published 1883 ).
Darwin, C., The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (ed. by his son, Francis Darwin), 3 vols. (John Murray, London, 1887), Vol. 1, pp. 238 - 239.
Piaget, J. and Inhelder, B., Mental Imagery in the Child ( Basic Books, New York, 1971 ).
Darwin, C., On the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (Ward, Lock, and Bowden, London, 1890; first published 1842), p. 21, p. 24, and p. 53.
Gruber, H. E., ‘The Fortunes of a Basic Darwinian Idea: Chance’, in The Roots of American Psychology: Historical Influences and Implications for the Future, ed. by R. W. Rieber and K. Salzinger Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 291 (1977); and Gruber, H. E., ‘Darwin’s “Tree of Nature” and Other Images of Wide Scope’, in Aesthetics in Science, ed. by J. Wechsler ( MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1978 ).
Burns, C., ‘A Case Study of Mary Wollstonecraft: The Development of Her Feminist Thought’, Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society (Philadelphia, 1976 ).
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Gruber, H.E. (1981). Cognitive Psychology, Scientific Creativity, and the Case Study Method. In: Grmek, M.D., Cohen, R.S., Cimino, G. (eds) On Scientific Discovery. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1284-3_15
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