Abstract:

Conceptual pluralism about creativity holds that we use multiple, systematically related concepts of creativity rather than a single one. I argue for pluralism from the philosophy of language. Both in our linguistic practice and in word semantics, ‘creative’ shows systematic variability: (1) we need different definitional clauses for agents, objects, and processes; (2) we employ weakened uses, including a current-state use for objects and a performance use for processes; and (3) as a gradable adjective, ‘creative’ draws on different types of good-making properties, yielding varying application conditions. I explain how the resulting pluralism solves some obvious and some not-so-obvious puzzles about creativity, and our debate about it.

Christian Nimtz holds the Chair of Theoretical Philosophy at Bielefeld University. His work is located at the intersection of the philosphy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and meta-philosophy.

The think!lab creativity is an initiative of the CRC 1646 “Linguistic Creativity in Communication”. Hosted by the philosophical sub-project B05 (PI Christian Nimtz and Julia Zakkou), it aims to provide a forum for the general discussion of creativity – a place to formulate idea, try out theories, discuss hunches and quite generally bring together different perspectives on creativity to broaden our theoretical and conceptual understanding.