What is it about?

Plato argued that the most important constituents of reality are perfect and timeless ideals ("Forms") from which actual things derive their essence. Plato's Forms are real, not simply concepts created by humans, and they precede any observable instantiations. Actual creative things, ideas, or performances, under this theory, can derive whatever measure of creativity they might have only by drawing from the Form of pure creativity. This kind of "craving for generality" (Wittgenstein's term) has led to great confusion in our understanding of creativity. There is no essence of creativity; one can only be creative when doing (or just thinking about) something. The fact that the creativity can only occur in some domain is a significant constraint on what the term "creativity" can possibly mean. Domains constrain creativity, not by establishing top-down rules, but simply by requiring different kinds of expression and different skills to enable such expression.

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Why is it important?

Creativity exists within domains. It does not exists outside of domains. This constrains both what the term "creativity" can possibly mean and the skills needs to produce creative outcomes in different domains. This changes how we must teach for creativity and how we assess creativity.

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This page is a summary of: Domains Constrain Creativity, August 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004707238_003.
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