Assignment Paper

Philosophy – 105
Jan to May, semester, 2020

S.N.

1 Name
UTKARSH SINGH
2 Roll no
19095101
3 Assignment Topic Knowledge as Invention:Modern
Definition of Creactivity
4 Department
ELECTRONICS
5 Date of Submissions
30/05/2020
6 Marks

KNOWLEDGE AS INVENTION:
MODERN DEFINITION OF CREATIVITY

ABSTRACT
Knowledge is information or skills acquired through experience and education .
Knowledge is actually discovered and invented, and this process goes on and
on as the knowledge passes from one man to another, from one form to
another or from one generation to another.
If we talk about invention it is something not previously deemed to be possible
in practice, but with proper use of existing knowledge and influx of creativity
we bring it to fruition. This brings us to the discussion what is creativity.
Creativity can be called an idea or maybe a process of seeing the intersection
of seemingly unrelated topics and combining it into something new.

The Need of the hour is how we can blend our knowledge and creativity to
produce inventions. What were the age-old definitions of creativity which
needed to change and what are the modern definitions of creativity?
Lately our culture has become obsessed with manufacturing creative
homosapiens who are endowed with the responsibility to turn into inventive
workers in these rapidly changing times , but we in the process of instilling
creativity , forcing it on ourselves and end up killing it.

Introduction
From the beginning , man had the ability to create and manifest something
that did not exist before his presence .
The age old understanding of creativity has not substantially changed but
what’s changed is our requirements and our expectations.These expectations
of us have led to increase in our thirst for more and more inventions which
will lead to world changing innovations , but at the root of which lies the
identical old process ,the process which we call as creativity. The worldwide
accepted theory is that the crux of creativity lies in making analogies
and creative people as the theory goes, are constantly connecting old
knowledge and experiences to new situations.
First of all we should get more into what is meant by an invention in
simpler terms and on basis of facts then we get to understand our
topic better
An invention is a novel method, composition or process.
An invention is a new scientific or technical idea, and the means of its
personification or accomplishment. An invention must be novel, have utility,
and be non-obvious. To be called an invention, an idea only needs to be proven
as feasible.

Theory and Reality

The theory of knowledge and creativity is an important aspect of philosophy.

This department of philosophy considers a wide range of problems: the
relationship between knowledge and reality, its sources and driving forces, its
forms and levels, the principles and laws of cognitive activity, and the trends of
its development. Philosophy analyses the criteria of the authenticity of
knowledge, its veracity, and also the causes of error, the problems of the
practical application of knowledge.  But it was some time before man began to
think about what knowledge actually was. The conscious posing of this
problem and the attempt to solve it was the beginning of philosophy in the
true sense of the word. All philosophers in some way or another analyse the
problem of the theory of knowledge and some have reduced the subject of
philosophy entirely to this problem. In addition to it, knowledge is the result of
the process of understanding of reality, established by socio-historical practice
and authenticated by logic, the true reflection of reality in human
consciousness in the form of representations, concepts, statements and
theory. Knowledge has varying degrees of accuracy, reflecting the dialectics of
relative and absolute truth. In its true original sense and mode of functioning,
knowledge is fundamentally a social phenomenon. It is fixed, embodied in the
form of the symbols of the natural and artificial languages.
Nowadays creative thinking is widely promoted. We constantly look for new
factors which refresh our thinking and make us ready to face new challenges.
Various human activities, both theoretical and practical as well as those
sometimes least expected, can bring with them inspiration and support.
Consequently, the search for new ideas and solutions should embrace an
inclusive approach. We need creative thinking in many spheres of our lives
along with the technical and exact sciences, social sciences, art and
humanities, in addition to numerous others human activities.
At any rate, everything starts with the mental capacity to see things in a new
or different way. Creative thinking has its source in such an attitude.2 Can
philosophy provide any assistance in developing and cultivating that attitude?
There are two possible but opposing answers. From one point of view, it would
appear that philosophy is not particularly well suited to this specific task. It is
connected with a complex net of ideas and projects developed throughout the
history of human thought. Yet it seems that in order to become creative we
must detach precisely from that historical and cultural burden. It is argued that
this liberation is what paves the way for new perceptions, new approaches,
and new ideas. This theory gains further support with the realization that these
days any progress is achieved within narrow fields of scientific or scholarly
specializations. Philosophy deals with general ideas so it seems to proceed in
the opposite direction. From the other point of view, it looks as if philosophy
may offer a unique advantage because of the hermeneutical character of its
discourse. Here, new categories are formulated in a kind of dialectic carried
out between the present and the past. The former brings with it new events
produced by culture and science while the latter offers us a rich and
multifaceted heritage. In this way, the philosophical mind is always stimulated
to answer the challenges of the present by drawing upon the resources of past
achievements.

Analyze the Topic

The Concept of Creativity

Perhaps the most fundamental question for any study of creativity,

philosophical or otherwise, is What is creativity? The 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 artefact. There 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 letters), it
must also be of value.

creativity is mainly an characteristic 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 mecha- nism,
such as the recombination of old ideas or the transformation of one’s
concep- tual space. Against this view, there we can offer an experiential
account of creativity. It 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.

It is not unusual to find 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 tradi- tion 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. There are two key arguments to it : The first
is that learning requires imitation, which is incompatible with creativity;
the second is that learning consists in following rules, which is
incompatible with creativity. After criticizing these arguments,further
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. We can show that creativity can be taught simply by pointing to
cases where it has been taught. To lend substantial argument to it we can
take cases that are already verified and have a proven existence

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, philosophy has a wealth of
heuristics—although they have not been nearly so well documented and
studied. Sometimes these take the form of useful hands on approach for
generating counterexamples, such as “check extreme cases.” Sometimes
they suggesting ways of generating new arguments out of old ones, as in
“arguments involving possibility can often be recast as arguments involving
time, or space.” Sometimes they provide templates for positive arguments
(e.g., ways of showing that something is possible). Philosophical heuristics,
when illustrated with numerous examples from the philosophical
literature, this work is a creative contribution to the philosophy of
education. And it offers insights for the philosophy of creativity too, as it
shows how, opposing to the unrestricted assumption, creativity can be
compatible with and even enhanced by the following of rules.

Your Understanding and Your Topic

Creativity is a constructive process which ends up in production of
fundamentally a new product . In these modern times its evolving as fast as we
could imagine , the definition has remained same just the interpretations and
our requirements have transformed , but the more we delve into it more it
increases our greed to conquer it and modify it to a cracked up procedure, like
a routine and not let it remain ,a process ,a natural one , one born out of
experiences , one formed out of analogies, and at the heart of it one grown out
of curiosity. As creativity is increasingly touted as the “premiere skill” of our
time, there’s little interest in just letting this ability develop independently.
Instead, it is being quantified, dissevered and verified, taught and measured.
invention is the result of a long process. Take making music, for
example. There is a lot of practice that comes before mastery and only after
that can innovation happen. Ideas must germinate in knowledgeable soil. A lot
of benefit is obtained from deep reflexion, and valuable concepts can’t be
implied without a profound understanding of primary-core principles.

Knowledge present out there has to serve purpose that is of promoting

inventive-creative thinking , by promoting I mean only sowing the seed and
waiting for it to come out of soil slowly and not pulling the sapling out of soil
in order to make it a tree, cause that would kill the plant rather increase its
height. What we have to accept is that not much could be done if seed aint
going to germinate at all , maximum we could do is provide better
conditions ,proper surroundings and leave it to the natural process to take
over .This analogy really helps in understanding the subtleties of creativity in
our modern age.
Overall our topic revolves

Short review of literature

Various renowned philosophers and prominent writers have explained their
stand on the subject , they need given detailed expression of their thoughts on
this trisection of data, creativity and invention and what role philosophy plays
in promoting power .

In so doing, we are closer to those metaphorically oriented theories than the

scientifically oriented ones which motivate power consistent with a distinction
introduced by Aaron Kozbelt, Ronald A. Beghetto and Mark A. Runco (2010:
22). Of course, the philosophy we reference does employ methodologically
strict thinking. Even so, in many cases it's not an investigative approach typical
of scientific thinking given the latter’s concentration on facts and scientific
methods. In contrast, philosophy deals with general and theoretical concepts
but also can see many less general notions and projects.4 It are often applied
to problems which arise outside its well-defined material. as an example,
philosophical methods can successfully capture problem situations in
technology, biotechnology or business. this permits us to seem at them in an
exceedingly different light or from new angles. Moreover, philosophy seems to
be particularly well-equipped to assist us “focus more on hypothetical or ‘as if’
modes of thinking” (Kozbelt et al. 2010: 22), which successively fuel an
ingenious approach to numerous problems.

difficult and demanding. the flexibility to think abstractly together with its
concomitant operations may prove indispensable here. the first 18th century
idea of possible worlds may help make this clear. Formulated by Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz, it originally concerned alternative worlds within the mind of
God and today it is a very important idea within the field of modal logic. we'll
limit ourselves to the theory’s original meaning. Such worlds were considered
“possible a minimum of within the sense that they're logically consistent and
[…] complete therein they're possible totalities of creatures” (Adams 1999:
724). once we begin a comparison of such possible worlds with human
inventions (and creativity), we actually compare macro worlds with micro
worlds. Understandably, there are some important differences and
incompatibilities. Nevertheless, by making comparisons and highlighting
differences we are able to reveal some similarities. With regards to creativity in
contemporary sciences and technologies, the flexibility to style theories and
things that are logically consistent is significant. this is often a sort of axiom.
Furthermore, an analogy are often made between the Leibnizian notion of
possible totalities of creatures and therefore the notion of a collection of
constituents. New inventions – in contrast to possible worlds – are realities
complete in themselves but only in an exceedingly relative sense. Maintaining
the essential features of the invention, their formula are often changed and
improved. In practice this suggests that several new component parts is also
constantly added, modified and replaced. the flexibility to figure out new
elements, only if we adhere to rules of logic and compatibility, could be a sort
of creative imagination enabled by understanding and learning
psychology has seen a certain surge of interest in creativity. In 1950, J. P.
Guilford gave a presidential address at the American Psychological Association
calling for research on the subject. and therefore the field 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 field are often seen within the flurry of
popular writing reporting on its results; a political candidate division of the
American Psychological Association on the psychology of aesthetics, creativity,
and therefore the arts (Division 10); numerous academic conferences; multiple
peer-reviewed journals; several textbooks; and a growing number of
undergraduate and graduate courses all dedicated to the psychology of
creativity. consistent with one historical overview, creativity has been studied
by nearly all of the foremost eminent psychologists of the 20th century, and
“the field can only be described as explosive.”

Conclusion
The Need of the hour is how we can blend our knowledge and creativity to
produce inventions. What were the age-old definitions of creativity which
needed to change and what are the modern definitions of creativity?
Lately our culture has become obsessed with manufacturing creative homo-
sapiens who are endowed with the responsibility to turn into inventive
workers in these rapidly changing times , but we in the process of instilling
creativity , forcing it on ourselves and end up killing it.

Resources
Wikipedia articles for accepted definitions on philosophy, education, invention
and creativity.
 J. P. Guilford’s theory
/blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-philosophy-of-creativity/

Theory of Kant on creative thinking

HOW PHILOSOPHY CAN HELP IN CREATIVE THINKING Grzegorz HOŁUB1 , Piotr
DUCHLIŃSKI 2