The Invention of the Creative Person - for the article in full head across the the Transpositions website
"As with so many of the labels that we use to identify ourselves, the creative person is an invention. Even words like “creative,” “creator,” and “creativity” are of remarkably recent vintage.[3] Our notion that certain individuals are creative has been shaped by significant developments in the way that modern people understand the human mind. The creative power of the human mind was made plausible by modeling it on the readily available Christian idea of the divine creator. As Edward Craig argues, this re-articulation of the human mind in terms of God’s actions relies heavily upon the Christian doctrine of the imago Dei as a kind of defense mechanism against the loss of the Medieval cosmos.[4]
Other forces have also shaped the way that we think about creative people. One of the most significant has been the industrial revolution and rapid technological advances. In an influential speech that essentially jump-started American research into the psychology of creativity, J. P. Guilford suggests that, in the face of these changes, “Eventually about the only economic value of brains left would be in the creative thinking of which they are capable.”[5] The fear of the machine and artificial intelligence continues to highlight creativity as one of the last bastions of humanity that must be nurtured and preserved lest we lose ourselves in a world of simulacra."
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