List, Although I agree that creativity cannot be taught/learned, it *can* be and, in my opinion not infrequently, is stifled, thwarted, stunted. near smothered, derailed, and finally self-inhibited. It can also be fostered, nourished, and encouraged.
A simple example: For a large number years I taught and coached music at every level from middle- to graduate school and during that time I heard many a tale of a child who was told (sometimes by a parent, sometimes by a sibling, even by a music teacher!) that she "couldn't sing," and that one comment stifled even the desire to sing, sometimes for decades (I should add that most of these folks had lovely voices once they were "released"). Many of them 'found' their voices in the course of working with me. I also worked for several years as a music therapist to explore how the active exploration of music could strengthen and encourage people in sometimes profound ways, especially when they discovered they could actually do creative things with it. On a somewhat related note, while at the Peirce Congress this July I had a conversation over lunch one afternoon with Eliseo Fernandez (Ben recently placed all his papers on Arisbe, btw, everyone worth reading, imo) where we agreed, and along Peircean principles, that an aesthetic education--even the simplest, rather, most natural kind relating to appreciation of nature--provides a sort of foundation, or at least, support for an ethical education. However, many children are deprived of that crucial aesthetic education and, in our considered opinion, lose an important part--the 'feeling' part--of their ethical education, indeed their fullest education as human beings. Well, this is all a bit off the Subject of this thread, so I'll leave it at that, especially as the Stjernfelt seminar has begun and I'd like to concentrate on that. Best, Gary *Gary Richmond* *Philosophy and Critical Thinking* *Communication Studies* *LaGuardia College of the City University of New York* *C 745* *718 482-5690* On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 7:53 PM, Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]> wrote: > That's an interesting comment, Gary R - but I don't agree. I don't think > that creativity is something that can or must be taught. I think that we > humans are naturally curious, exploratory and thus, creative. You can watch > any young child at play to see this, as they put together strange sandpile > shapes or figure out how to manipulate a parent to get that extra sweet. > > I don't think that destruction is the default position - which it would be > if you assume that creativity only exists IF it is taught. I think that > destruction emerges out of psychological angst and anger - and - it is not > in itself always 'taught', i.e., the result of childhood abuse. I think > that sociopathic behaviour can be innate. > > As for doing nothing - I don't consider it destructive or leading to > decline. Releasing oneself from the bondage of action in a retreat is not > a destructive action in many ideologies, eg, Buddhist, Christian retreat. > > Edwina > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Gary Richmond <[email protected]> > *To:* Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]> > *Cc:* Jon Awbrey <[email protected]> ; Peirce List 1 > <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Monday, September 01, 2014 6:57 PM > *Subject:* Re: [PEIRCE-L] Q. Why is there so much falsity in the world? > > Edwina, Jon, list, > > A friend of mine, a Peirce scholar not currently in this forum, just > happened to include this comment in a personal note. I thought it had some > relevance. > > To the extent that humans are not taught to be creative, they will be > destructive (even if only by default; even doing nothing is destructive, or > leads to decline). > > Best, > > Gary > > *Gary Richmond* > *Philosophy and Critical Thinking* > *Communication Studies* > *LaGuardia College of the City University of New York* > *C 745* > *718 482-5690 <718%20482-5690>* > > > On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 4:00 PM, Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> You are playing games with us, Jon! You haven't said WHY you consider >> that people 'prefer falsity to truth, illusion to reality'. >> >> And I don't agree with your conclusion, for it carries within it an >> assumption that truth and reality are unpleasant. Are they? >> >> What about - the fact (truth, reality) that our species has the greatest >> capacity of all living organisms to 'imagine' the world. That capacity for >> imagination enables man to invent - something that animals, for the most >> part, have little capacity to do. Rather than waiting for evolution to >> develop wings, man imagines flying and invents the airplane. And email >> and.... >> >> And in his capacity for invention, man must deal with truth and reality. >> Or, the plane won't fly and the computer won't exist or work. >> >> So, aren't we a combination of both? And thus, don't we require both? >> >> Edwina >> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Awbrey" <[email protected]> >> To: "Peirce List 1" <[email protected]> >> Sent: Monday, September 01, 2014 3:50 PM >> Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Q. Why is there so much falsity in the world? >> >> >> A. Because people prefer falsity to truth, illusion to reality. >>> >>> ⁂ >>> >>> Being the drift of my reflections on the plays I saw at Stratford this >>> summer — >>> King Lear, King John, Man of La Mancha, Alice Through the Looking-Glass, >>> Crazy for You, Hay Fever. >>> >>> ⁂ >>> >>> The Beaux’ Stratagem • Masks, Madness, & Shakespeare's Sonnets • Anthony >>> and Cleopatra >>> >>> ⁂ >>> >>> http://web.archive.org/web/20140730150000/http://www. >>> stratfordfestival.ca/mobile/plays.aspx?id=63 >>> http://web.archive.org/web/20140901185642/http://www. >>> stratfordfestival.ca/forum/showcases.aspx?id=20472 >>> >>> ⁂ >>> >>> The obligatory report on What I Did This Summer, >>> but not unrelated to pressing problems of logic. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Jon >>> >>> -- >>> >>> academia: http://independent.academia.edu/JonAwbrey >>> my word press blog: http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/ >>> inquiry list: http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/ >>> isw: http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/JLA >>> oeiswiki: http://www.oeis.org/wiki/User:Jon_Awbrey >>> facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JonnyCache >>> >>> >>> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------ >> -------------------- >> >> >> >>> ----------------------------- >>> PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON >>> PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to >>> [email protected] . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to >>> PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] with the line "UNSubscribe >>> PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/ >>> peirce-l/peirce-l.htm . >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> ----------------------------- >> PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON >> PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to >> [email protected] . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L >> but to [email protected] with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the >> BODY of the message. More at >> http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm . >> >> >> >> >> >> >
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