Creative Act Research Articles

Creation as divine absence: A metaphysical reframing of the problem of evil

Abstract The philosophical ‘problem of evil’ goes back at least as far as Epicurus and has remained a powerful argument against the existence of God in contemporary philosophy. The argument is rooted in apparent contradictions between God’s divine attributes and various conditions of human existence. But these contradictions arise only given certain assumptions of what we should expect both God and the world to be like given God’s existence. In this article, I argue that we can utilise the work of the twentieth-century French philosopher Simone Weil to craft a coherent metaphysical picture of God, creation, and suffering that rejects these common assumptions. Further, I contend that this picture very plausibly follows from commonly accepted tenets of traditional monotheism. Given this, I argue that this Weil-inspired framework provides serious reasons for reframing the problem of evil and its corresponding theodicies by presenting a radically different view of how God must relate to creation. Yet, this picture does not necessarily vindicate the theist. I argue that this picture may leave us with a new question about creation in the face of evil. Namely, is it possible to understand God’s initial creative act as Weil describes it – as an act of love?

Why the standard definition of creativity fails to capture the creative act

The “standard definition” of creativity holds that a creative idea is one that is novel and useful. This judgement is customarily based on an external frame of reference as it is passed by people who are receiving the idea (the recipient). The internal frame of reference of the person who has generated the idea (the creator) is usually ignored. I make two cases in this paper. First, that employing external frames of reference in assessing creative products has been erroneously applied to understand the creative mind. Second, that any definition of creativity needs to be one that can be reasonably applied whether following an internal frame of reference of the creative experience or an external frame of reference of the creative product. With these aims in mind, I propose the following amendment to the definition of creativity: a creative idea is one that is both novel and satisfying.

Illuminating Causality: The Role of Light in Thomas Aquinas’s Metaphysics of Being

In this article, we hold a strong thesis, i.e., that light is the conceptual resource that best explains the creative act in Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysics. Thus, inasmuch as being is the luminous act of the Uncreated Being, it bears resemblance to the Uncreated Being in its very principle. In this sense, we seek to present the role of light, in its meaning as manifestation, as an act that belongs to being. Indeed, in contrast with some contemporary interpretations, which place light within the order of formal causality, we argue that light, in its belonging to Aquinas’s participatory metaphysics, pertains to the order of efficient causality. Therefore, we hold that light has strong explanatory pretensions in Aquinas’ thought. Accordingly, after an introduction (1), this article is divided into the following sections: (2) The Meaning of Divine Causality; (3) Being as Light; (4) The Manifestative Character of Light; (5) Light Images: Analogies and Metaphors; and (6) Conclusions.

Introduction: Political Ecologies of Paper in Early Modern Art, 1500–1800

Abstract This special issue examines paper as it became the definitive material for both artistic practice and jurisprudence. European paper made from pulped rags and linens to create the mythic white empty grounds for design was foundational to early modern European ideas about both sovereignty and the creative act. The materiality of paper—as a surface created from refuse—also introduced a form of ecological thinking into both artistic practice and political theory that recognised the value and revolutionary potential of the material world to create from the detritus of failed projects and revolutions. Surveying artistic production across the European continent and into the Ottoman empire, this series of essays examines paper as both a material force that redefined the limits of the creative act while also being inseparable from the consolidation of new political regimes emerging from the rise of early modern colonialism. Paper was both the tool of dispossession and also the grounds on which the potential of artistic practice was reimagined.

Poetic Performativity

The author examines the performative status of a poetic work. Following T. Różewicz, he points to non-textual and potential forms of poetry’s existence. As a counterbalance to excessive adherence to textocentrism, he proposes functionalizing the tools of the new humanities (R. Nycz) and the theory of affect (B. Massumi) in the analysis of the creative act. The author indicates ways of studying the poetic experience with reference to the performative actor model (W. Baluch). Demonstrated voice recordings of poetic performances in the context of Dramatic Theory of Literature (A. Krajewska) are examples of gaining special insight into experience and dramatic self-discovery.

On the origin of life on earth.

The creation of the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo) is attributable to the eternal God. Would a direct divine intervention be needed for other singular events, such as the origin of life? Taking apart the human being, created to image and resemblance of God, we argue that current scientific knowledge allows us to rationally admit a continuity between the origins of the universe and the emergence of life on Earth. Although the irruption of living beings from inert matter is a leap or discontinuity in creation, a direct intervention of God would not be indispensable. The initial impulse of creation, with matter and energy in a space-time imbalance, could have triggered reactions between the different elements and a self-organization of metabolites, in accordance with natural physical-chemistry laws. This paradoxical increase of complexity ended with a transition from chemistry to biology. It happened when independence, metabolism, heritability, and life cycle took place in a protocellular unit. In this way, the emergence of life on earth could be part of an evolutionary dynamic of the timeless God's creative act.

The creative act in the studio: A plea for rethinking potentiality in art education

This article outlines three dominant ways in which the concept of potentiality is discussed in art educational literature, and in particular the connections between actualizing potentialities and creation. It then pivots to the works of Giorgio Agamben in order to problematize some of the basic ontological assumptions embedded within the three dominant views of the potentiality–actuality–creativity relationship. Agamben focuses his analysis on the (im)potential remnant of potentiality that remains within any given actualization and highlights the role of such (im)potentiality in creative acts. To illustrate this role, the article offers four ways that (im)potentiality exhibits itself in various art forms before concluding with implications for imagining the artist’s studio as a space and time for (im)potential acts of creation.

Introduzione. La memoria e la regione estetica della retorica

Within the historiographical and theoretical question of the relationship between aesthetics and rhetoric, according to which terms and concepts of aesthetics were also formed thanks to rhetoric, which circumscribes a perceptible and circumstantial sphere of reason, the present issue is dedicated to investigating a poietic idea of memory. Within this framework, the interest in memory and not imagination is legitimised precisely by the desire to analyse the productive capacity of rhetoric from the 'inferior' faculty that seems at first glance the least creative, since traditionally memory has an accumulative and conservative function. Instead, our intention is precisely to suggest, thanks to the contributions published here, how memory is not simply a place of storage, but a source of invention. A memory that is therefore the very condition of the creative act and of the passage from the already known to the possible new. The issue is thus divided into two parts: the first deals with the specific topic of poietic memory, the second explores some aspects of the more general question of the relationship between aesthetics and rhetoric.

Exploring How Generating Metaphor Via Insight Versus Analysis Affects Metaphor Quality and Learning Outcomes.

Metaphor generation is both a creative act and a means of learning. When learning a new concept, people often create a metaphor to connect the new concept to existing knowledge. Does the manner in which people generate a metaphor, via sudden insight (Aha! moment) or deliberate analysis, influence the quality of generation and subsequent learning outcomes? According to some research, deliberate processing enhances knowledge retention; hence, generation via analysis likely leads to better concept learning. However, other research has shown that solutions generated via insight are better remembered. In the current study, participants were presented with science concepts and descriptions, then generated metaphors for the concepts. They also indicated how they generated each metaphor and rated their metaphor for novelty and aptness. We assessed participants' learning outcomes with a memory test and evaluated the creative quality of the metaphors based on self- and crowd-sourced ratings. Consistent with the deliberate processing benefit, participants became more familiar with the target science concept if they previously generated a metaphor for the concept via analysis compared to via insight. We also found that metaphors generated via analysis did not differ from metaphors generated via insight in quality (aptness or novelty) nor in how well they were remembered. However, participants' self-evaluations of metaphors generated via insight showed more agreement with independent raters, suggesting the role of insight in modulating the creative ideation process. These preliminary findings have implications for understanding the nature of insight during idea generation and its impact on learning.

PERCEPTION OF THE VALUES OF THE PREVIOUS ERA IN THE PARADIGMS OF « PROMINENT PHILOSOPHERS AND WRITERS

Disputes about the “uniqueness” of one’s era in comparison with the achievements of previous ones have always been a “cornerstone” in the perception of past concepts regarding the values of the achievements of predecessors. However, at one time, Confucius said his world-famous phrase that if you don’t look back, there is no way forward. But many people are not interested in their past. That is why the “Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes” in the form of a literary debate, centered on a comparison of the value of the contributions of ancient authors and French authors of the 17th century, and which was widespread at the time, is still relevant today. The purpose and objectives of the article. The purpose of the article is to highlight the perception of the values of previous eras in the paradigms of “non-contemporary” prominent philosophers and writers. The tasks of the article are to reveal the reasons for the primordial disputes about “ancient and new”, a natural return to ancient literature and ancient philosophy. Research methodology. The leading research methods were: content-comparative - to analyze the reliability of judgments of French writers of the 17th century; retrospective, which helps to investigate the phenomenon of the value of “the ancient in the new” in the century-old controversy, the method of personalization, which ensures the study and understanding of the works of S. Perrault and his contemporaries. The results. It’s no secret that the tasks of art in the Antiquity, Middle Ages and Modern times differed greatly. For Antiquity, every craftsman was an artist, while the activity of a painter and sculptor was a more complex craft. It is typical for that time that there was almost no idea about creativity and the creative act, but despite this, the ancient Greeks were able to create immortal examples of art. The art of the Middle Ages was supposed to embody a moralistic character and remind of the eternal, the art of romanticism saw godlike creativity as its goal. The art of the 20th century presented its ideal in the denial of everything that the previous era saw as its goal, periodically declaring the death of art. Based on the fact that today there are many different ideas about the goals and tasks of modern art, we cannot say with full confidence what is the common goal of the art of our days, and it is even more difficult for us to imagine how art will live, for example, through a hundred years. Conclusions. So, we can come to the conclusion that in the era of the early Enlightenment, the attitude to the ancient heritage, in particular in France and England, was not unambiguous even among the educated aristocracy or university professors who knew Greco-Roman works well enough. This is clearly evidenced by the century-old dispute “about ancient and new”, which caused a lot of auxiliary discussions. Undoubtedly, even today arguing and debating about the art of previous eras and our own has a place in philosophy and literature, and they continue to do this with success for more than one hundred years. But to prove the rightness of one of the sides of these disputes is a sufficiently dubious matter for science.

Devaneios

Reflecting on the creative act is an important moment of pause for us to understand the paths that feed our processes, evaluate the transformations our practices have taken, and delve more deeply into our artistic work. During the creative process, the artist uses an initial idea, which is often reconfigured after a period of maturation, reflection, and experimentation. This investigative trajectory is permeated by doubts and uncertainties, tests, errors, abandonments, successes, revisions, deviations, migrations, expansions, ramifications, and new inspirations; a constant advance and retreat of possibilities lead to the realisation of the work, the emergence of other works or new areas of interest to be investigated. It is a process of constant metamorphosis, which requires moments of distance from the artist for the maturation of their aesthetic issues.

Personality as a creative act

Personality as a creative act

The 5C Model of Linguistic Creativity: Construction Grammar as a Cognitive Theory of Verbal Creativity

Creativity is a design feature of human language. This paper presents a cognitive model of verbal creativity that draws on insights from the psychological research into creativity—particularly Glăveanu’s 5A model that distinguishes five crucial perspectives on a creative act (actors, audience, artefacts, actions and affordances). The paper will outline a linguistic version of this model that adopts Construction Grammar as its theoretical foundation. The resulting “5C model of constructional creativity” argues that the central elements of linguistic creativity are constructors, co-constructors, constructs, constructional blending and the constructional network.

Linguistic creativity of occasionalisms in Brandon Sanderson’s works

This paper investigates the linguistic creativity of authoral occasionalisms of American fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson on the material of his series of works “The Stormlight Archive”. The captivating phenomenon of occasionalisms is examined in the terms of linguistic creativity and measured according to the criteria we have derived. The study focuses on word formation, a linguistic tool that is the creative act of inventing new words. The art of word creation has long been a hallmark of human linguistic ingenuity, allowing us to create new concepts and give them appropriate denotations and connotations. As part of our study, we observe the way Brandon Sanderson, as a linguistic personality, gives semantics to the concepts and terms he has created, and “surrounds” them with pragmatics in the context of sentences and the overall narrative text. We hope to shed light on the understudied synergy between author and language/author and speech, thereby contributing to our understanding of how writers devote to the linguistic innovation, and shape the future of language itself. This research has implications not only for linguistics, but also for the development of understanding the potential of fiction to enrich speech, creative writing, and the evolution of language in our dynamic age.

Программа курса внеурочной деятельности для учащихся третьих-четвёртых классов: «Словесное творчество» (Часть 2)

The article presents a program for a course of extracurricular activities, the purpose of which is to develop the verbal creativity of younger schoolchildren. The content part of the “Verbal Creativity” program provides not only analytical work with texts of different genres, but also “immersion” of the child into a state of creative research and writing. The program offers methodological recommendations for the teacher, which make it possible to provide conditions for students to understand the creative act as a stage in the creation of a text, subject to their own ideas.

Seeding the Future (This Is Not a Metaphor): Creative Acts of Public Gardening with Yarrow Collective

In a world beset by climate crisis, how can artists create participatory performance work that moves audiences from distant spectators to become active agents with an awareness of the role they play in a larger ecosystem? On lək̓ʷəŋən territory, colonially known as Victoria, BC, Yarrow Collective creates multidisciplinary installations that invite communities into creative acts of public gardening. In this case study, co-creators Sammie Gough and Laurel Green trace the development of their new work for Pacific Opera Victoria’s Voices in Nature that toured city parks in the summer of 2022. Drawing from a wide variety of influences, they envision the transformative potential of weaving together their artistic practices in an ongoing collaborative relationship with the life cycles of Indigenous plants and pollinators. They confront their own settler-inherited, extractive notions of what a garden should be and explore what becomes possible when gardening is shifted from expert labour to a shared creative act. Yarrow Collective’s installations become meeting places for intergenerational temporary communities that offer ecological resources, hold space for uncomfortable truths, and yield opportunities for ongoing stewardship as both collective journeys and site-responsive living artworks.

Could Avicenna’s god remain within himself?: A reply to the Naṣīrian interpretation

Avicenna holds that since God has existed from all eternity and is immutable and impassible, he cannot come to have an attribute or feature that he has not had from all eternity. He also claims for the simultaneous causation. A puzzle arises when we consider God’s creating this world. If God is immutable and impassible, then his attributes associated with his creating this world are unchanging. So, God must have been creating the world from all eternity. But then God’s creative act, one might object, seems to be no different from a matter of natural necessity. This is a threat to divine freedom, for God would then have no choice concerning his creative action. Anthony Ruffus and Jon McGinnis argue that this puzzle can be solved in such a way that Avicenna can consistently affirm divine freedom along with divine simplicity. They suggest that Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī’s interpretation might help to show that it is false that Avicenna’s God cannot choose absolutely. For it is still open to him to choose either to create eternally or to refrain from creating anything at all. Ruffus and McGinnis argue that since creating or not creating anything at all do not correspond to two distinct concepts, Avicenna’s account of divine simplicity, which denies any multiplicity in divine mind, is safeguarded along with divine freedom. I claim that God’s omnirationality requiring that he always acts for reasons is a serious threat to such an interpretation.

Interaction-focused music therapy with cancer-affected children and their significant others: a randomized controlled feasibility study with subsequent intervention (INMUT)

BackgroundPaediatric oncology/haematology patients and their families are confronted with a life-threatening situation for which music therapy can be a cross-linguistic field of action. The creative act of making music together offers the possibility to strengthen competences and make conflicts tangible. Besides its complementing of evidence-based biomedical care, there is little research on the feasibility and efficacy of interactive music therapy including the diagnosed child and their significant others.MethodsWe conducted an assessor blind, prospective, multicentric feasibility randomized controlled trial (RCT) with subsequent intervention. Including overall 52 child-significant other dyads, INMUT investigates interaction-focused music therapy with cancer-affected children and their significant others (INMUT-KB; n = 21) compared to music therapy only with the child (MUT-K; n = 21) and a wait-list group (WLG; n = 10). The measurement points include the screening for a cancer diagnosis, psychometric baseline (pre-T1), initial assessment (T1/T2), music therapy sessions (T3–T9), final assessment (T10), final psychometric evaluation (post-T10), and 3-month follow-up (cat-T11). Feasibility and acceptability of the (1) research methodology, (2) intervention and (3) estimation of effect sizes will be assessed using qualitative and quantitative data. The proposed primary outcome includes the parent–child interaction (APCI), and the proposed secondary outcomes refer to subjective goal achievement (GAS), quality of life (KINDL), system-related functional level (EXIS), psychosocial stress (BAS), psychosomatic complaints (SCL-9k), and resources (WIRF). We plan to investigate the efficacy of INMUT-KB and MUT-K post-intervention (post-T10) within the RCT design and at 3-month follow-up (cat-T11).DiscussionThis study will provide insights into the feasibility of INMUT and the final sample needed for a confirmatory RCT. We will reflect on successfully implemented study procedures and, if necessary, provide recommendations for changes considering the design, procedures, measures, and statistical analyses. The discussion will conclude with an evaluation whether a confirmatory RCT is worth the investment of future resources, including the calculated number of child-significant other dyads needed based on the efficacy trends derived from this feasibility study.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05534282; date of registration: June 23, 2022.

Billy and the Thirteen Blackbirds: The Co-Creation of Meaning in a Child Analysis Session

ABSTRACT The author uses the microanalysis of a single videotaped session with a neurodiverse child to find insights into the process by which change takes place in analysis. In this analytic play session, change is generated through a rhythm of “match, disruption, and reunion” on top of which, like a carrier wave, a narrative is co-created about the “stability” of the relationship. In keeping with the theme of Jonathan Palmer’s inspiring paper relating psychoanalysis with the creative act of painting, the author links her observations of the clinical session with two other forms of art – a Wallace Stevens poem (“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”) and an essay on Romanesque art by the art historian, Meyer Schapiro. Both the psychoanalytic session and these examples of art illustrate the centrality of co-creation in the dyads (analyst-patient, author-reader, and sculptor-viewer).

Jéghideg vizek játéka. Esettanulmány Nichita Stănescu két versének Szilágyi Domoks-féle fordításáról

This case study examines the Hungarian translation of two poems by Nichita Stănescu done by Domokos Szilágyi. The first part of the paper briefly outlines the life and poetic art of Nichita Stănescu, emphasizing the significant role he played in 20th-century Romanian poetry. Stănescu’s contribution brought originality and linguistic innovation to Romanian poetry, aspects that are highly complex and therefore challenging to convey in other languages. Domokos Szilágyi, himself a recognized poet and translator, translated several poems by Stănescu in the anthology titled Víziorgona (Water Organ). These translations were acclaimed by both contemporaries and later generations. The second part of the study provides a deeper and more detailed analysis of Szilágyi’s Hungarian translations of the two highlighted poems (Orga de apă, N-ai să vii – Water Organ, You Won’t Come). It not only focuses on the technical aspects of linguistic translation but delves into the musical and poetic characteristization of the poetic texts. Within this process, discussions revolve around playful use of language, grammatical subtleties, the transferability of rhymes and rhythm, while considering the equivalence criteria applied in literary translation. Beyond the technical approach, the analysis highlights the creative and artistic aspects of the translation work. The study explores to what extent translation can be viewed as a creative act and a creative activity in itself and examines how it intertwines with the atmosphere of the original work and opens up new dimensions in the target language. Keywords: literary translation, poetry translation, Romanian poetry, equivalence, language play, rhyme, rhythm, musicality, Domokos Szilágyi, Nichita Stănescu, Water Organ.