“For many people,” George F. Kneller, author of The Art and Science of Creativity (1965)
observes, “being creative seems to
imply nothing more than releasing impulses or relaxing tensions… Yet an
uninhibited swivelling at the hips is hardly creative dancing, nor is hurling
colours a canvas creative painting.” Creativity does involve a
willingness to break away from established patterns and try new directions, but
it does not mean being different for the sake of being different or as an
exercise in self-indulgence. It is as much a mistake to ignore the accumulated
knowledge of the past as it is to be limited by it. As Alfred North Whitehead
warned, “Fools act on imagination
without knowledge; pedants act on knowledge without imagination.”
Being creative means combining knowledge and imagination.
Lord, Give
Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)
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