Rethinking creative intelligence: comparative psychology and the concept of creativity
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(2021) 11:16
PAPER IN GENERAL PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Open Access
Rethinking creative intelligence: comparative psychology and the concept of creativity Henry Shevlin 1 Received: 15 December 2019 / Accepted: 14 October 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The concept of creativity is a central one in folk psychological explanation and has long been prominent in philosophical debates about the nature of art, genius, and the imagination. The scientific investigation of creativity in humans is also well established, and there has been increasing interest in the question of whether the concept can be rigorously applied to non-human animals. In this paper, I argue that such applications face serious challenges of both a conceptual and methodological character, reflecting deep controversies within both philosophy and psychology concerning how to define and apply the concept of creativity. After providing a brief review of some of the leading theories of creativity (Section 2) and discussing some of the strongest putative cases of creative intelligence in non-human animals (Section 3), I examine some of the more worrisome difficulties faced by attempts to use these theories to answer the question of whether animals are truly creative (Section 4). I conclude by examining how we might overcome them, and suggest that one approach worth taking seriously is to adopt what I term a Strong Rejectionist view of creativity, eschewing use of the term entirely in the scientific study of comparative cognition. Keywords Creativity . Comparative psychology . Philosophy of science . Animal
cognition . Creative intelligence . Creative cognition . Insight
1 Introduction Creativity is a concept deeply rooted in folk psychology and is applied widely to a broad array of human activities. We praise children for their creative imagination, seek This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Creativity in Art, Science & Mind Guest Editors: Adrian Currie, Anton Killin
* Henry Shevlin [email protected]
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Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, 16a Mill Lane, Cambridge CB2 1SB, UK
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European Journal for Philosophy of Science
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to unleash the power of our creativity in the workplace, and admire creative geniuses in the arts and sciences. Reflecting the central place of creativity in human thought, a formidable body of literature on its nature and underlying mechanisms has developed in a wide range of fields including psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, the history of art, and anthropology. While much of the interest in creativity has focused on creativity in humans, it has also long been suggested that some non-human animals might also be creative, and examples abound of apparent innovation, improvisation, and ingenuity in animal groups as varied as chimpanzees, dolphins, and birds. Despite the abundance of evidence of prima facie creative behaviour in non-human animals, however, the exemplary cases of creativity such as scientific discovery and artistic inspiration are confine
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