scholarly journals Creativity as a Practical Manifestation of Freedom (Historical and Theoretical Context)

Author(s):  
Viacheslav Lymar

The study concerns the consideration of creativity in the light of the main philosophical studies of this concept. The activity of the creative process practically proves the presence of freedom in human existence. Views on creativity reflect the attitude of a particular thinker to the question of the opposition of freedom and predestination in general. The polemical moments concerning creativity are considered and the ways of their decision are offered. In particular, two opposing views on the work of Plato and Aristotle are studied, where human talent presupposes divine inspiration (Plato) or, accordingly, only personal efforts. Nikolai Berdyaev tries to resolve the controversy between Aristotle and Plato by combining their views. He endows man with divine properties and thus indicates the source of creativity in the middle of man himself. Philip Hefner gives the individual the status of “co-creator” and puts forward the theory that man is called to improve and complete God’s creation. The study also focuses on the content and purpose of creativity. Creativity for the sake of creativity itself, which Albert Camus wrote about, was criticized by M. Berdyaev, and he offered his vision of this issue: creativity for the sake of a universal goal. Camus’ views were generally shared by A. Bergson. In connection with this last controversy, the actualization of Hryhoriy Skovoroda’s doctrine of “related work” is proposed and the expediency of this actualization is argued. Our domestic philosopher originally balances the pessimism of Camus’s work and Berdyaev’s enterprising approach. Skovoroda supports his conclusions with accurate practical examples. Reasoned conclusions about the need to update the teachings of G. Skovoroda on creativity and «related work» are given.

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
Е.В. Яковлева ◽  
Н.В. Исакова

Рассмотрена культурная определенность творческой деятельности в аспекте отношения между творчеством как созданием чего-то принципиально нового и воспроизводством культуры, основанным на экспликации заложенных в нее смыслов. Материалами послужили результаты исследований философов и культурологов, изучавших проблемы социокультурной обусловленности творчества. Проводится аналитическое рассмотрение основных концепций, связанных с трактовкой творчества, изучены подходы к определению творческого статуса отдельных продуктов культуры, затронуты проблемы соотношения содержания и формы в творческой деятельности, охарактеризованы современные условия ее осуществления. Выделены варианты творческой деятельности по критерию характера выражаемых смыслов. Сделан вывод, что в настоящее время присутствуют социальные и технологические предпосылки как для множественной проработки уже известных мейнстримовых направлений, так и для формирования уникальных по форме и содержанию смысловых конструкций. The main problem of the study is to identify the relationship between the individual and culturally predetermined aspects of creative activity with the subsequent extension of the findings to the modern sociocultural situation. The sources were materials and research results of philosophers and culturologists studying the problem of the sociocultural conditioning of creativity. The authors proceed from a methodological premise that implies that, in the creative sphere, there are mechanisms for the “elaboration” of individual ideas, similar in their principles to the development of paradigms in the meaning that Thomas Kuhn attached to this term. The authors ask themselves the question of what the status of creativity is in modern research thought and determine the general points that are characteristic of almost all philosophical systems when considering creativity. The contradictions inherent in the problem of the cultural conditioning of creativity are analyzed. On the one hand, creativity is conditioned by the influence of culture and its development; on the other, it is the product of the free activity of an individual. The authors argue that a simple explication of culture is impossible, but one cannot reject the presence of direct objective factors that, to one degree or another, affect the creative process. Trying to determine the degree of conditionality of the creative process, the authors turn to the analysis of musical notation as a universal language of music. The conclusion is made about the limited (albeit calculated in huge numbers) options for expressing sound combinations. At the same time, this limitation acts simultaneously as determinacy, the so-called “field for maneuver”. Abstracting from this observation, the authors argue that the novelty of creative activity is not absolute: when faced with its product, we observe “the unknown in the known”. It is this aspect that determines the connection between creative individuals when they are forming cultural heritage. Four variants of creative activity are distinguished according to the criterion of the nature of the meanings expressed and the means used for this. The authors argue that the degree of variability of creative activity largely depends on how much society considers it permissible to introduce something new into the existing. They conclude that at present there are social and technological prerequisites both for the multiple elaboration of already known, mainstream areas and for the formation of semantic structures that are unique in their form and content.


2018 ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
Юлія Юріївна Бродецька

The article deals with the ontological aspects of the consolidation of social being. As a fundamental reproduction mechanism, there is a phenomenon of meaning. The meaning produces, transmits the practice of connectivity and the unity of co-existence both at the individual and social levels. It is a connection, involvement that continues in the nature, quality, stability of human relations with the outside world. This connection gives the status of reality, the truth of human existence. In its ontological significance, reality as materiality, conformity, is only in experience. Thereby it is revealed that the social and individual being reality is in the space of experience that a human acquires in social interaction. «Significance of experience» forms a connection with reality, which acts as an ontological basis of meaning and grows out of its metaphysical nature. Thus, it fills the meaning itself, makes a true, real human being. The meaning connects, transforms and gives perspective to social relations. It is noted that the basis of meaning is its ontological characteristic, that is, a phenomenon arising from the real life relationships of an individual with the outside world. The nature of the meaning, which is an integral, consolidating, is determined by its transcendence. The meaning is always in the objective world. In other words, human does not choose and does not invent meaning, on the contrary, by selfrealization, it forms its connection with the world – its life meaning. Therefore, human existence requires direction to someone (something) other than herself. This metaphysical connection of being and meaning ensures the connection of human co-existence. So the true life meaning is always outside the human self, and therefore requires unity with other people. This logic reveals the phenomenon of comprehension as an integral being element, its symbolic component. Because of this, the main task of human is to go beyond the limits of their own selfishness, to feel their connection with the surrounding world. In this perspective, the meaning phenomenon is revealed in the space of sacral transformation, the personality birth. The more human overcomes the power of selfishness in themselves, the more he reveals the uniqueness of the surrounding world, the more he improves, realizes himself, acquires understanding of his own personality. In other words, self-realization itself does not foresee a direction. When in the human creativity field there is no orientation towards another human, when he «creatеs» for himself, a human must be prepared to be disappointed. Such «creativity» is empty, unclaimed, since it is devoid of its main content – love, that is, meaning. In other words, self-realization in itself should not and can not be the goal of human life. It is the result of the life meaning realization that is achieved only in the harmonious human connection with the outside world, only in productive relations with others. Therefore, self-realization is only a side effect of the man’s release beyond his own self. Consequently, meaningful life is not concentrated on its own «I», but is connected internally and externally with the lives of others. Moreover, this life is not only connected but it is also integral, since the nature of human relationship with the surrounding reality is a projection of the attitude towards himself. Thus, the analysis of the consolidation mechanisms of human existence, of its integrity, harmony, must focus in the space of the meaning problem. In other words, it is a matter of gaining a real individual experience of unity with the world. It is precisely this perspective of studying problems of integration of social and individual order that allows you to offer tools and ways to solve the issue.


2008 ◽  
pp. 110-134
Author(s):  
Pavlo Yuriyovych Pavlenko

The cornerstone of any religion is its anthropological concept, which seeks to determine the essential orientations of man, to outline the ideological framework of its existence, to represent the idea of ​​its essence, purpose in earthly life. The main task of the religious system is the act of involving and subordinating man to the spiritual divine realm as the realm of the transcendental existence of God. Belief in the real presence of the latter implies a new understanding of oneself, which ultimately leads the religious individual to the desire to be involved in this transcendental existence, to have intimate relations with him, to have a consciousness inherent in God. Note that in this context, all human being is interpreted as a certain arena for this realization. Therefore, the religious life of the individual acquires the status of religious activity.


Author(s):  
Rachel Ablow

The nineteenth century introduced developments in science and medicine that made the eradication of pain conceivable for the first time. This new understanding of pain brought with it a complex set of moral and philosophical dilemmas. If pain serves no obvious purpose, how do we reconcile its existence with a well-ordered universe? Examining how writers of the day engaged with such questions, this book offers a compelling new literary and philosophical history of modern pain. The book provides close readings of novelists Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy and political and natural philosophers John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Darwin, as well as a variety of medical, scientific, and popular writers of the Victorian age. The book explores how discussions of pain served as investigations into the status of persons and the nature and parameters of social life. No longer conceivable as divine trial or punishment, pain in the nineteenth century came to seem instead like a historical accident suggesting little or nothing about the individual who suffers. A landmark study of Victorian literature and the history of pain, the book shows how these writers came to see pain as a social as well as a personal problem. Rather than simply self-evident to the sufferer and unknowable to anyone else, pain was also understood to be produced between persons—and even, perhaps, by the fictions they read.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-138
Author(s):  
Dr. Bilal Ahmad Khan

Islamic economics based on specific concept of universe and the creation of man is contradictory to the concept adopted and accepted by modern science. Islamic economics postulates although ability and expertise is required for progress and growth but distribution of resources completely dependent on it would be cruel, inhuman and bereft of kindness, and lead to oppression. Islamic economics does not favor making human ability and expertise the fulcrum of resource distribution. It should be kind, considerate and based on justice and fairness. This is because according to Islamic philosophy, ownership is considered to be a trust from Allah which has been bestowed on the rich so that they may utilize it correctly. In Islamic economics the role of the individual, has inclinations and his aims and objectives occupy a central position and are vitally important. He is definitely a rational being but his level of rationality is not confined to the calculations of cost and profit. An individual does not want merely to obtain monetary profit and physical pleasure and leisure but he also wants and aims for something beyond what the material world has to offer. The main aim of the study is to find out the relationship between Islam and economics. In Islamic economics the comprehensive moral training of the individual, his technical and educational ability, his aims and his priorities are of primary importance. According to Islamic economics the means of acquiring wealth has the same importance as wealth itself. Dishonesty, abuse of trust and earning of wealth through fraudulent ways and means may perhaps increase the status of an individual but the society suffers because of it on the whole. This leads to an unjust and oppressive economic system.


Author(s):  
Alan Cooper

This chapter discusses three aspects of Jewish reception of the Ketuvim (Writings or Hagiographa): the status and authority of the Ketuvim in relation to the Torah (Pentateuch) and the Nevi’im (Prophets); the study and liturgical use of Ketuvim, focusing on the so-called Five Scrolls (hamesh megillot) and the Book of Psalms; and the character of traditional commentary on selected books, including recommendations for further reading. The Ketuvim were considered sacred and inspired, but at a lower level of inspiration than the Torah and the Prophets. They were regarded as diverting and edifying, but insufficiently authoritative to support the promulgation of law, which was the fundamental concern of rabbinic teaching and learning. On the whole, Jewish commentators seek to find consistency in the interpretation of the individual books, “taming” their originality in order to conform their meanings both to the rest of Scripture and to normative Jewish teachings.


Author(s):  
James Aaron Green

Abstract In Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1863), Charles Lyell appraised the distinct contribution made by his protégé, Charles Darwin (On the Origin of Species (1859)), to evolutionary theory: ‘Progression … is not a necessary accompaniment of variation and natural selection [… Darwin’s theory accounts] equally well for what is called degradation, or a retrogressive movement towards a simple structure’. In Rhoda Broughton’s first novel, Not Wisely, but Too Well (1867), written contemporaneously with Lyell’s book, the Crystal Palace at Sydenham prompts precisely this sort of Darwinian ambivalence to progress; but whether British civilization ‘advance[s] or retreat[s]’, her narrator adds that this prophesized state ‘will not be in our days’ – its realization exceeds the single lifespan. This article argues that Not Wisely, but Too Well is attentive to the irreconcilability of Darwinism to the Victorian ‘idea of progress’: Broughton’s novel, distinctly from its peers, raises the retrogressive and nihilistic potentials of Darwin’s theory and purposes them to reflect on the status of the individual in mid-century Britain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-95
Author(s):  
Esther Sánchez-Pardo

AbstractIn Sisyphus Outdone (2012), Nathanaël’s particular tribute to Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), the reader faces a challenging hybrid text in which the verbal and visual dimensions intermingle to produce an idiosyncratic type of narrative. Fragmentary, elliptical, a web of quotations, dictums, and meditations on the difficult condition of the individual in the current image-saturated scenario of the first decades of the 21st century, the text manages to propose a rigorous reflection upon crucial aspects of representation from History and temporality, to the Subject now, photography, catastrophe theory, architecture, failure and translation, among the most salient. Sisyphus, I suggest, exhibits a strategic photopoetics which operates as a self-reflective mechanism contributing to the persistence of an impermanent liminal subject and to the (re)production of textuality and the proliferation of voices against silence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23
Author(s):  
Thomas Crew

In this essay I consider the theme of individuation or self-becoming in Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo (1888) and Hesse’s Demian (1917) and Steppenwolf (1927). Although this task appears inter-disciplinary, Nietzsche’s autobiography can be considered a Bildungsroman in which ‘Nietzsche’ plays the protagonist. After showing the correspondences between Nietzsche’s and Hesse’s diagnoses of contemporary Europe, which can be summed up with the notion of ‘decadence’ or nihilism, I suggest that they both point towards the process of self-becoming as the ultimate remedy for both the individual and society. Self-becoming is a painful yet necessary process that holds the repeated destruction of the individual’s identity as the precondition for attaining the status of human being. It is a process implied by Nietzsche’s ‘formula for human greatness’: amor fati. Resistance to individuation leads to a state of ‘miserable ease’, embodied by what Hesse calls the ‘bourgeois’ and what Nietzsche terms the ‘last men’.


2003 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Offer

Herbert Spencer remains an important and intriguing figure in thinking about political, social and moral matters. At present his writings in relation to idealist thought, social policy, sociology and ethics are undergoing reassessment. This article is concerned with some recent interpretations of Spencer on individuals in social life. It looks in some detail at Spencer's work on psychology and sociology as well as on ethics, seeking to establish how Spencer understood people as social individuals. In particular the neglect of Spencer's denial of freedom of the will is identified as a problem in some recent interpretations. One of his contemporary critics, J.E. Cairnes, charged that Spencer's own theory of social evolution left even Spencer himself the status of only a ‘conscious automaton’. This article, drawing on a range of past and present interpretative discussions of Spencer, seeks to show that Spencerian individuals are psychically and socially so constituted as to be only indirectly responsive to moral suasion, even to that of his own Principles of Ethics as he himself acknowledged. Whilst overtly reconstructionist projects to develop a liberal utilitarianism out of Spencer to enliven political and philosophical debate for today are worthwhile – dead theorists have uses – care needs to be taken that the original context and its concerns with the processes associated with innovation (and decay) in social life are not thereby eclipsed, the more so since in some important respects they have recently received little systematic attention even though the issues have contemporary relevance in sociology.


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