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biophile's picture

That makes sense. I wouldn't

That makes sense. I wouldn't call something that emerged arbitrarily creative. I don't look at flowers and say "wow, that's such a creative invention!" And I don't listen to background noise on the street, like cars honking or doors slamming, and say, "this has a nice beat to it... very creative."

That being said, I think there are certain things that we label as creative that aren't the result of conscious processes. A lot of important ideas have been conceived in the most random moments: while driving, after waking up, in the shower... It reminds me of the story of how Archimedes supposedly thought of a way to measure the density of solid objects while taking a bath and then ran through the streets of the city in his excitement. The solutions to problems often come to us when we're not consciously thinking about them. I'd say that the solutions are creative because something is obviously going on in our unconscious minds, something is making connections for us.

 

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