A history of creativity for future AI research
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Conceptual and historical analysis paper containing no empirical data; graded by design analogy.
What was done
Conceptual and historical analysis of two traditions defining creative activity: the classical Latin use of "creare" (a natural process of bringing about change) versus Jerome's Vulgate biblical concept of creation from nothing. The authors evaluated how these traditions influenced modern psychology and artificial intelligence (AI).
What was found
The abstract reports no quantitative measurements or experimental data. The authors argue that AI and psychology have primarily adopted the creation-from-nothing tradition, thereby limiting these fields to Western concepts of individualism and progress, while causing chronic conceptual confusion that could be resolved by adopting the broader, process-based classical tradition.
Why it matters
It highlights cultural and historical assumptions embedded in computational creativity definitions, arguing for a broader conceptual basis for future AI research.
Limits
The work is purely theoretical and historical with no empirical experiments, human behavioral data, or quantitative evaluation of AI systems.
Cited by
- supports Prior to the late 18th-century Romantic period, creativity and originality were not considered synonymous.