The phrase "thinking aside" had its modern reincarnatrion in Arthur Koestler's remarkable book, The Act of Creation, published in 1965. It was an enormously influential book and became required reading in many colleges. What make this book so impressive even today is that much of what Koestler induced is being validated by the technology of the new neurology and cognitive sciences -- CAT scans and the like, none of which was available to him. We may say that Koestler's era of psychology, biology, philosophy, and literary and artistic history -- all of which served as the foundation for his scholarship, was not so far off the mark, if we concede that today's technology can be quicker and less faulty than the reasoned guesswork Koestler had to employ. That does seem to justify an extended probation period for philosophy!
Along with "thinking aside" Koestler argued for what he called "association and biassociation" by which he meant the creative habit of making parallel, analogous but not causal associations; that is, the use of metaphorical imagery. In fact, now that I've retrieved this book from the darker corners of my library, brought back to mind by the "thinking aside" phrase -- and my memory that Koestler devoted a whole chapter to it, I intend to re-read the book. It's a classic and may have new validity for us today. WC --- On Thu, 8/7/08, Michael Brady <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Michael Brady <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: an aesthetic experience and science > To: [email protected] > Date: Thursday, August 7, 2008, 8:37 AM > On Aug 7, 2008, at 9:00 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > insight tends to arrive during "relaxation", > when we are not > > "thinking about" > > the problem -- e.g. when we're taking a shower, or > just sitting in a > > subway
