Focus on Words

UNIT 10 Inspiration And Creation
DISCUSSION POINT
1. Where does creativity come from?
2. How do we find our best ideas, our greatest expressions of imagination?
3. What does it mean to be creative?
4. Is creativity connected with profession or some special interest or both?
A. A creative person usually has a number of intellectual habits, such as openness,
new ideas, autonomy, expertise, a wish to explore and make discoveries. Creativity
involves the production of something new in any field. A focus on place considers the
best circumstances in which creativity will flourish; including freedom to act, access to
resources. In The Act of Creation, Arthur Koestler lists three types of creative individual
- the Artist, the Sage and the Jester. Creativity in Western culture was originally seen
as a matter of divine inspiration. In Greek culture, for instance, Muses were seen as
mediating inspiration from the Gods.
The traditional Western view of creativity can be contrasted with the traditional
Eastern view. For Buddhists, creation was at most a kind of discovery, and the idea of
creation “from nothing” had no place in this philosophy and religion.
B. From artists and authors to
campaigners and politicians, we often ask:
What’s your inspiration? What
prompted you to create it? There’s a kind of
mystery in how a man opens new ways,
paves new paths in different areas, be it
architecture or poetry, or genetics Even a
deep insight into the creations fails
sometimes to give a satisfying answer to
the question.
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