To Understand Creativity

Abstract

The present article presents an analysis of the concept of creativity. The majority of re- cent literature on creativity agrees with the general view that ideas and actions must be novel and useful in order to be creative. The present article reviews eight different criteria for creativity to argue that the general view is too restrictive in most contexts. On the basis of a Wittgenstein inspired understanding of concepts, which allows us to distinguish be- tween necessary and desirable properties, it is therefore suggested that abduction, intention and likelihood are seen as necessary proper- ties and other properties (such as originality, novelty and usefulness) are seen as desirable in relation to creativity. This has far-reaching perspectives for example in relation to the de- velopment of creative skills in the education system. If we require that students’ academic ideas must be novel and useful for them to count as creative, we risk placing a too high demand on students’ work. As such, a possible and highly relevant perspective of the article is that by working with less restrictive criteria such as abduction, intention and likelihood, it becomes easier for teachers to relate to the concept and more realistic for students to develop their creative skills within the edu- cation system.